Last weekend King’s High School student Samuel Mitchell, along with four other students from Trinity, Columba and Taieri Colleges, flew to Wellington for the 2024 National Debating Championships. There were 14 different teams from over 60 High Schools around the country competing in the tournament. 

Arriving on Friday morning gave time for the team to explore the city and tour the Supreme Court before doing the first debate of the tournament. Unfortunately Otago went up against a very tough Auckland team and lost by a slim margin. The next day Otago managed to convincingly win three debates in a row before having a fun casual Quiz Night at one of the Wellington law buildings to round off the day. 

On Sunday Otago managed to win the first round before losing the second round to the second of two Auckland teams. The final debate of the Sunday was a silent round meaning that they would know the results when the semi finalists were announced later that night. 

After a nice fancy dinner at a Cricket Club it was announced that Otago came third in the semi finals with 5/7 wins. This meant that on Monday they would up against the the Auckland team that first beat them on Friday. 

The semi finalist topic was quite interesting but Otago were able to use it to their advantage and make lots of jokes to win the judges and the audience over. Fortunately, this time they were able to win by a unanimous decision. Now Otago were in the finals against the Auckland team which had beaten them on Sunday. It was going to be held in Parliament and in the crowd were many politicians and important people alike. 

The topic was 'Whether the state was the biggest threat to free speech in 2024 or not.' Otago argued that the state was not the biggest threat to free speech and, instead, it was independent censorship. 

In a poetic fashion Otago managed to beat Auckland and become the Debating National champions for the first time in 21 years. 

It was quite a cathartic moment seeing all of the Otago team and coaches hard work pay off. 

It could not have been made possible without the other wonderful team members of Che McGivern from Trinity College who was named 'Promising Young Speaker' of the tournament and Clara Ballantyne from Columba College who was named Captain of the New Zealand Debating Team. As well as Joanne Brock-Smith from Taieri College and Emily Roy from Columba College for being supportive reserves.