Arguing to victory for the ABC

THE grand finals of the Royal South Street Society’s debating competition were held on Monday afternoon, with students arguing on topics relating to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In the Year 9 and 10 penultimate debate on the ABC’s relevance to young people, the affirmative team from Loreto College were successful over the negative team from Ballarat High School.

Loreto’s senior affirmative team won the last debate of the day for Year 11 and 12 students against Phoenix College’s negative team, arguing that a publicly funded ABC is more important than ever for Australia and its democracy.

Loreto College’s Mathilda Carli said her team was pleased when they received their topic, and side, as it was something they’re all passionate about.

“We as young people watch the ABC and take interest in that, so it was a great opportunity. It’s one thing to debate on a topic, but another to debate on a topic you agree with,” she said.

“We were in two rounds before the final, came together as a team, and our different styles worked really well together.”

Teammate Lucy Eales said the competition was a learning experience, but most of all, lots of fun.

“It’s so exciting to engage in something that’s going to give you skills for life,” she said.

The Ballarat branch of advocacy organisation ABC Friends sponsored this year’s RSSS debating grand finals, and representative David Mac Phail was in the audience.

“We were pleased to get young people exploring the relevance of public interest journalism, more specifically in this case, the ABC,” he said.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to understand the relationship between government institutions, the judiciary, and the fourth pillar of democracy. Who wins the argument is not important.”

Medals and trophies were presented to the students by Bridget Aitchison, the campus dean of ACU Ballarat, a fellow competition sponsor.

“I did speech and debate all through high school, and what I learnt has stood me in such good stead throughout my entire career, so good on you all for having a go and doing as well as you can,” she said.

“Understand that this is meaningful and that it will give you skills and experiences that you will take into life. You’ll look back one day and go, ‘I am so glad I did that’.”