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Monash students are champion debaters

19 July 2006

The Monash Association of Debaters, representing Monash University, has won the 2006 Australasian Debating Championships.

The championships were held from 2 to 10 July at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. This is the seventh time Monash has won the title since first winning in 1992 -- more times than any other university -- and the 13th time since 1990 that Monash has had a team in the final.

The Monash 1 team, comprising politics honours student Mr Tom Chapman and arts/law students Mr Jacob Clifton and Mr Roland Dillon, defeated Melbourne University 1 in the final, without having lost a round at the tournament.

Mr Dillon won the inaugural Jock Fanselow Cup for the Best Speaker in the final and was ranked second-best speaker at the tournament.

Arts/law students Mr Amit Golder, Ms Fiona Prowse and Mr Tim Jeffrie made up the Monash 2 team, who were narrowly defeated in the first round of finals by Sydney University 2.

Monash sent the largest contingent of participants to the championships -- six teams and 11 adjudicators. An unprecedented seven Monash adjudicators, including tournament Deputy Chief Adjudicator and Monash law/economics graduate Ms Kylie Lane, were selected to judge the finals series.

President of the Monash Association of Debaters Mr Ravi Dutta said the win reinforced Monash's consistently strong performance at the tournament.

"This was the second time Roland has been part of a victorious Monash team and joins Monash greats Martin Sorensen, Ben Richards and Tim Sonnriech as multiple winners," Mr Dutta said.

"With the Monash 2 team members participating for only the second time in the championships and being ranked among the top 30 speakers, the future of Monash debating looks very bright.

"Monash adjudicators like Claire Lindsay and Prasanna Venkataraman, who adjudicated the quarter finals, are also fast building a reputation for being among the best in the world."