September 14, 2008 3:21pm by David Farrar

Go NZ Go

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Debating Team (supported by Russell McVeagh) have just won the world champs semi-final against Scotland and are through to the final.

This is the first time since 1995, NZ has made it through to the grand final. 39 teams have been competing from all over the world.

The team is:

  1. Maria English (Captain, Samuel Marsden)
  2. Holly Jenkins (Sacred Heart)
  3. Jennifer Savage (Wanganui Collegiate)
  4. Tom Chen (Hillcrest High)
  5. Ben Kornfield (King’s College)

Their topics to date have been:

  1. This house supports military intervention to deliver emergency aid in humanitarian crises’ – beat Greece 2-1 opposing
  2. This House would ban strikes by workers in essential state services – beat Estonia 3-0 proposing
  3. This house would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research – beat Bangladesh 3-0 proposing
  4. This House would make humanities subjects compulsory at undergraduate level – beat Japan 3-0 opposing
  5. This house would make the directors of multinational companies personally liable for environmental abuses committed by their companies in the developing world – beat Scotland 3-0
  6. A debates I don’t know topic for won 3-0 against Singapore
  7. This house believes that governments have a duty to bail out failing financial institutions – beat Slovakia 3-0
  8. A debates I don’t know topic for won 3-0 against Indonesia
  9. This House believes that heads of government should be required to have a parliamentary majority to govern – – beat Netherlands 5-0 (octo-final)
  10. This House regrets the holding of the 2008 Beijing Olympics – beat Ireland 4-1 (quarter-final)
  11. This house would drop all US sanctions on Cuba – beat Scotland 7-0 proposing (semi-final)
    The final motion is:

This House would expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council

NZ goes up agains England in the final. It is being held at the Reagan Centre in Washington DC and will commence at 6.30 am NZST on Monday.

Winning 11 debates in a row is an incredible result. Best of luck to all of the team and support crew for the final.