University of Auckland
Debating Society
INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENTS
Australs
2022 Dates: 2nd-9th July
2022 Location: Krabi, Thailand.
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Prep Time: 30 minutes
Speech Length: 8 minutes
Speakers: 3 per team
Points of information are not allowed
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The Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships (known colloquially as “Australs”) is an annual debating tournament for teams from universities in the Australasian region. It is one of the world’s largest debating tournaments, second only in size to the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC).
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Australs follows the Australia-Asian Debating format (three speakers plus replies), rather than the British Parliamentary Style used at WUDC. It is held every year in early-July under the auspices of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Association (AIDA). The host university is selected a year before at a meeting of the AIDA Council.
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Since the inaugural tournament at the University of Sydney in 1975, Australs has continually expanded the scope of its participants, now attracting around 300 competitors each year from around the Asia-Pacific region. Currently teams come from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines.
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The 2010 Australs was held here in Auckland!
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Interested in going? Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates on trial dates!
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2023 Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
2023 Trials: TBD
2023 Dates: 27th December 2023-3rd January 2024
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Auckland achieved unprecedented success at Worlds over the past decade: In 2015, both Auckland teams (James Rankin/James Penn and Paul Smith/Jess Storey) broke, meaning that Auckland is one of only 3 universities in the world to break 2 teams. Auckland 1 (Paul Smith and Jess Storey) made it to the semi-final. Our judges have been very successful, with Bronte Page breaking in 2017 and Daniel Maier-Gant in 2018. In 2021, 2 Auckland Teams broke, and Auckland B (Daniel Maier-Gant, Sharuka Wikramanayake) made it as far as the semi-finals.
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Auckland was very successful at Worlds in 2011/12, knocking over teams from Yale and Oxford in the process. In 2018 Auckland B narrowly missed the break with enough win points to qualify but unfortunately not enough speaker points.
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Speech Length: 7 minutes
Speakers: 2 per team
Points of information: are allowed
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The World University Debating Championship is the pinnacle of world university debating. This massive tournament frequently sees over three hundred teams from all around the world competing.
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It is held in the British Parliamentary debating style, which consists of four teams; Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government and Closing Opposition. The opening teams conduct a debate in a ‘normal’ manner, while the closing teams must somehow ‘extend’ the case of their opening team – without being inconsistent with what has already been set up. Each team is scored individually and is ranked from first to fourth.
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Worlds
Australasian Wom*n's
2023 Trials: TBD
2023 Dates: 7th-9th October
2023 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Speech Length: 8 minutes
Speakers: 2 per team, one novice minimum
Points of Information: are allowed.
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The Australian Women’s Parliamentary Debating Championships is a British Parliamentary style competition attended yearly by some of the best female debaters from across Australia and beyond. There is a requirement that each team contain at least one novice, and the tournament has a strong focus on providing a comfortable and friendly environment to develop debating skills amongst female debaters. Nevertheless it is an exceptionally competitive tournament. Many of the best debaters from Women’s can also be seen amongst the award recipients at Australs and Worlds.
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Auckland has done very well at this tournament sending two teams in 2021, both of which broke and with one breaking to the semi-finals. In we sent two judges, Zar who was a DCA, and Aisha who judged the grand final.