National Schools Debating Championships

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:31): I rise today to congratulate the South Australian schools state debating team for the incredible success they achieved last week at the National Schools Debating Championships in Melbourne. This team made history by being the first South Australian team since 1997 to win the National Schools Debating Championships over this weekend. It is a great achievement in what is a very highly competitive competition. It is an achievement that I am particularly interested in, being a former member of the schools state debating team myself, between 2006 and 2008, and then going on to coach the team some years after that, but I never achieved anywhere near the level of success of the 2023 team over this weekend.

The National Schools Debating Championships occur annually and involve eight teams, one from every state and territory in the country. It is a highly competitive process even to be selected into one of these teams and then, once selected, the South Australian team has spent the last year training for seven hours a week in the lead-up to the championships that occurred last week. Debates are done with 60 minutes of preparation without access to any other resources, and topics range from a wide variety of issues, including political, social and economic issues.

This team has very much done us proud. During the minor rounds, South Australia won six out of seven of their debates, losing only to New South Wales, which they more than made up for by defeating New South Wales in the semifinals before going on to win the competition for the first time since 1997 after beating Queensland in the grand final, where they debated the negative of the topic, 'We prefer a world in which there was a single world government, rather than a series of domestic governments.' I very much congratulate the team on this achievement.

The team this year consisted of four members. Devika Mukherjee is a year 12 student at Wilderness, and this was Devika's third year on the state team and, very happily, she was one of two South Australians selected for the Australian schools' debating team which will compete in Hanoi in July. Max Thomas was on the team as well. Max is a year 12 student from Prince Alfred College and was the third speaker. Max also has been on the team for three years, and this year he won the Chris Erskine Medal for the best speaker in the grand final. He was the other South Australian who was selected for the Australian team. Phoebe Chalmers is a year 12 student at Seymour College in my electorate. It was a pleasure to tour Phoebe around Parliament House only a few weeks ago before she left for the championships.

She was the team's first speaker and has been on the team for two years and was selected as a reserve for the Australian team as well. The fourth member of the team was Thomas Henchcliffe from Prince Alfred College. The four members of the team were also accompanied by three reserves: Nicholas Henchcliffe, Alexander Koh and Isabella Teague. They were served all year including at the championships by a stellar array of coaches, including Shiva Mukherjee, Jessica March and Evelyn Vincin, and Georgia Zhang also assisted with adjudication.

I very much commend the coaches; having done the job myself, I know just what a task it can be. I was also privileged to have been coached myself on that team by many great debating coaches—people who made me a better debater but I think people who made me a better person as well and who remain as mentors for me in my life and in my career. They know who they are, and I am sure they are all just as proud as I am that the South Australian team has experienced this success. I congratulate all those team members. I congratulate the South Australian Debating Association and its executive. Go Shrikes!