Schools' Competition

The annual Tasmanian schools' debating competition is open to all secondary schools in southern Tasmania. The competition is divided into six age groups, from first-time debaters in Grades 7 or 8, through to Open competition at college level.

  1. Resources:
  2. Rules /
  3. Team registration /
  4. Forfeit and postponement /
  5. Hosting notes
  1. Previous Champions:
  2. Novice /
  3. Class 8 /
  4. Class 9 /
  5. Class 10 /
  6. Class 11 /
  7. Class 12

Debates in the competition are held on Wednesday nights from early March until the end of the second school term at various schools around greater Hobart. Competition debates are held every week with rosters structured to ensure that an individual team only debates once per fortnight. On each evening, the first debate commences at 6.30pm and the last debate ends before 10pm. Debates are open to the public.

Commenced Division Classes
March 30th, 2011 Southern Schools' (Blue) novice / 9 / 12
March 30th, 2011 Southern Schools' (Red) novice / 8 / 10

Parliamentary Shield

The Parliamentary Shield draws together the best debaters from public, independent and private schools around Tasmania for a weekend of intense debating competition. Conducted according to the highest Australian standard rules, debaters attempt to persuade their audience on topics of current significance and claim the Parliamentary Shield.

  1. Previous Champions:
  2. North /
  3. South /
  4. Statewide

Since its inception, the Parliamentary Shield has been supported by the Tasmanian branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, with the successful team claiming the Shield donated by the CPA.

There are no active Parliamentary Shield competitions at this time.