2016 Season Results

Good afternoon Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen and my fellow debaters. My name is Nathalie Johnstone and it is my pleasure to be addressing you this afternoon as we celebrate yet another great year for Debating SA and the achievements of the teams and individuals present this afternoon.

Your Excellency, for your continued patronage of this competition, we are grateful. That you are there this afternoon, Sir, is a significant acknowledgement to all of us that civil and informed debate is essential to our democracy.

For many debaters, this competition has afforded us substantial opportunities to develop not only our public speaking skills, but our ability to reason, analyse and challenge our own bias. These fundamental skills, regardless of the path our lives take, will place us in good stead. But for some, this competition has offered something else: the chance to develop self-belief. Last year I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Debating has given me the opportunity to confront my fear of being gripped by this condition in front of an audience and whilst under pressure. But, my experience is not unique. This year I have met students who have overcome:

• Speech impediments
• dyslexia
• significant visual impairments
• anxiety
• and having English as their second language

So thank you to Debating SA, the adjudicators, my fellow debaters, our audiences, parents and teachers.

If it were not for the safe and supportive culture created by all involved, the chance to be brave and allow all participants to truly challenge ourselves would not have been possible. We are grateful for the role this competition has had in developing our skills not only from a critical perspective, but also for helping us to foster self-belief and become confident young people with both the ability and the courage to speak up.

I now invite His Excellency forward to present medallions and to debaters and Miss Sonja Lowen, Training and Development officer, Debating SA to read the citations.