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the 2020 Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship
2020-07-12 · AP
Part of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship (Australs) series →
Motions from this series
2020 Australs (2020)60 motionsCA: 🇦🇺 Kevin L., 🇳🇿 Joe A., Madeline S., Cellini B., Sera Y., Boby R.
- Round 1That, as Joe Biden, we would choose to run on a ‘Medicare-for-All’ platform.
- Round 1That we oppose the medicalisation of learning disabilities.
- Round 1That we regret the norm that doctors should defer to their patients' wishes, even where doing so is not in those patients' best interests.
- Round 2That the government should provide incentives for the urban poor to migrate to rural areas.
- Round 2That the #MeToo movement has failed working class women.
- Round 2That we support gamification in the workplace.
- Round 3That we would abolish the ‘one-year-out’ rule in the NBA.
- Round 3That we prefer a world where sports are not commercialised.
- Round 3That we regret the ongoing prominence of cricket in postcolonial countries.
- Round 4That we, as Benny Gantz, regret signing the coalition agreement between Likud and the Blue and White alliance.
- Round 4That we regret the Trump-Taliban peace deal agreement.
- Round 4That Palestinians should abandon their claim for statehood and opt for a civil rights struggle instead.
- Round 5That we support a permanent move to online tertiary education.
- Round 5That we would proportionately subsidise (e.g. scholarship and funding) university courses according to the employability of their graduates.
- Round 5That we regret the expectation that children should be shielded from all forms of danger.
- Round 6That the Democratic Party should not embrace 'Never Trump' Republicans.
- Round 6That legislative bodies (e.g. parliament, congress, senate, councils) should be formed by sortition democracy.
- Round 6That young people should reject traditionally empowered political parties.
- Round 7That we should ban mortgage-based financial derivatives.
- Round 7That we should limit the trading of individual shares and derivative products to licensed professionals.
- Round 7That we should ban high-frequency trading.
- Round 8That we prefer a world where social media networking sites are only available on a paid subscription basis.
- Round 8That social media companies should aggressively censor offensive and discriminatory content.
- Round 8That we should ban mergers and acquisitions of mass media companies.
- Open Partial Double-OctofinalsThat we, as original producers of non-Western films, would deny Hollywood the right to produce remakes, unless a quota for non-Western actors/actresses is guaranteed.
- Open Partial Double-OctofinalsThat we prefer transformative to curatorial fandom.
- Open Partial Double-OctofinalsThat Disney should remove from circulation cartoons from its history that contain racist caricatures.
- ESL OctofinalsThat we regret the stigmatisation of hedonistic lifestyles.
- ESL OctofinalsThat we support the creation of children's literature which teaches that people are neither good nor evil.
- ESL OctofinalsThat we should abolish literary awards (e.g. the Man Booker Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature).
- Open OctofinalsThat, as minorities, we would engage with respectability politics.
- Open OctofinalsThat we would require companies to use absolute blind recruitment.
- Open OctofinalsThat we should stop the practice of requiring community's approval to build houses of worship.
- EFL QuarterfinalsThat the state should pay reparations to individuals convicted in the past for actions that are no longer recognised as a crime.
- EFL QuarterfinalsThat criminal trials should proceed even when the accused is deceased.
- EFL QuarterfinalsThat the state's failure to address a pandemic should be considered as a crime against humanity.
- ESL QuarterfinalsThat non-Western LGBTQ activists should reject sex positivity.
- ESL QuarterfinalsThat we regret the belief that individuals possess defined personality traits.
- ESL QuarterfinalsThat portrayals of religious deities and prophets in media should receive prior approval from relevant religious authorities.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat the European Central Bank should monetise the government deficits of Eurozone countries experiencing financial crises.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we should reallocate public investment funds from start-ups to traditional small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we should allow parents to sell shares in their children’s future income streams.
- EFL SemifinalsThat it is illegitimate for states to limit immigration unless there is a clear threat to national security.
- EFL SemifinalsThat we regret the rise of nation-states built around exclusive notions of language, race, and religion.
- EFL SemifinalsThat developing countries should prioritise the massive construction of infrastructure over the direct provision of high subsidies and social welfare.
- ESL SemifinalsThat, as developing nations, we would prefer to align with China than the United States.
- ESL SemifinalsThat ASEAN should transform itself into a political union.
- ESL SemifinalsThat Western companies with a significant number of employees from the Indian diaspora should actively campaign against the caste system.
- Open SemifinalsThat we regret narratives which portray human progress as inevitable.
- Open SemifinalsThat we regret the emphasis placed on individual rights by social justice movements.
- Open SemifinalsThat, in countries where military service is mandatory only for men, as self-proclaimed feminist women, we would actively volunteer in the military.
- EFL Grand FinalThat France should abandon the principle of laïcité.
- EFL Grand FinalThat activist movements should embrace cancel culture as a tool to promote social change.
- EFL Grand FinalThat it is morally wrong to use subconscious manipulation to nudge citizens towards socially desirable choices.
- ESL Grand FinalThat capitalism is incompatible with racial equality.
- ESL Grand FinalThat, as a woman of colour living in a majority-white country, we would embrace, compete in and establish national beauty pageants for women of our ethnic heritage.
- ESL Grand FinalThat we, as a Catholic priest, would actively endorse liberal values that do not align with the Catholic Church.
- Open Grand FinalThat, as environmentalists, we would choose a strategy of working closely with corporations.
- Open Grand FinalThat we should grant legal personhood to culturally significant features of the natural environment.
- Open Grand FinalThat we support compassionate conservation.
2019 Australs (2019)45 motionsCA: 🇦🇺 Ben J., 🇦🇺 Dominic G., Alice S., Yarn S., 🇵🇭 Mika F., Mubarrat W.
- Round 1That the United States should adopt a single payer insurance scheme instead of offering a public option in the private insurance market.
- Round 1That progressive politicians in the United States should boycott Fox News.
- Round 1That the Democratic party should elect a centrist candidate for the upcoming United States presidential election.
- Round 2That we should use predictive data to assess the age at which individuals should qualify for retirement pension payments, rather than a standardised retirement age.
- Round 2That we support greater restrictions on migrants' access to civic rights (welfare, healthcare, voting rights, etc.) in exchange for more open immigration.
- Round 2That we should allow parents to raise babies behind bars.
- Round 3That the international community should recognize Somaliland as an independent and sovereign nation.
- Round 3Assuming the Sudanese civilians manage to take power from the military, That the new civilian government should revert to its pre-1970 flag.
- Round 3That, as Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), we would hand Omar al-Bashir over to the International Criminal Court.
- Round 4That we regret the commercialisation of cultural/religious festivals.
- Round 4That you should start a new religion.
- Round 4That, as an evangelical conservative leader in a red/swing state, we should endorse a third party candidate (such as Evan McMullan) instead of Donald Trump.
- Round 5That we should force large companies to be fully publicly listed.
- Round 5That self-described 'socially responsible investors' should engage in shareholder activism with companies that have poor ethical records rather than excluding them from their portfolios.
- Round 5That we should ban the short-selling of shares.
- Round 6That we regret the prominent usage of self-deprecating humour by female comedians.
- Round 6That minority movements should abandon the strategy of ‘reclaiming’ words used as slurs.
- Round 6That we support the #OwnVoices campaign that says authors should only write from the perspective of their own lived experiences and stories.
- Round 7That, as an Islamic political party in a democracy (e.g. PAS in Malaysia, National Awakening Party PKB in Indonesia, Jamaat e Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh) we would abandon an agenda of Islamic political reform and focus instead on provision of social services.
- Round 7That, as Qatar, we would abandon all attempts to reconcile with the Saudi coalition.
- Round 7That India should remove Articles 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitution.
- Round 8That reputational damage should not be a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing.
- Round 8That we should nationalise all provision of legal services.
- Round 8That we should abolish cash bail and replace it with an algorithmic risk assessment.
- Open OctofinalsThat, as Hong Kong, we would prefer having remained under British rule rather than reverting to China.
- Open OctofinalsThat, as the Chinese Communist Party, we would officially acknowledge and express regret for the Tiananmen massacre.
- Open OctofinalsThat, as China, we would suspend rare earth mineral exports to the United States in response to the trade war.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat social media platforms should be held legally part-liable for hosted content that passes a certain threshold of 'clout' (e.g. pageviews).
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we prefer a world where digital anonymity is and was the norm.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we oppose the development of implantable Direct Cortical Interfaces.
- ESL SemifinalsThat parliamentary democracies should have an upper house with randomly selected citizens.
- ESL SemifinalsThat we regret the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
- ESL SemifinalsThat we support federalism in the Philippines.
- Open SemifinalsThat we regret the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
- Open SemifinalsThat we support federalism in the Philippines.
- Open SemifinalsThat parliamentary democracies should have an upper house with randomly selected citizens.
- EFL Grand FinalThat wealthy environmentalists should purchase land and not allow mining or drilling on it, instead of donating to political campaigns for government regulations.
- EFL Grand FinalThat activist groups against companies with poor ethical records that sell physical products (ie. Nike), should protest by stealing merchandise from stores, distributors and factories.
- EFL Grand FinalThat climate change activists should exclusively focus on changing the behaviour of governments and big businesses (rather than campaigning for individuals to make small changes in their own lives).
- ESL Grand FinalThat investment in sport should prioritise funding grassroots and community sports as opposed to elite athletes.
- ESL Grand FinalThat the ICC should abolish the principle of complementarity.
- ESL Grand FinalThat we should abolish the Common Agricultural Policy.
- Open Grand FinalThat we regret the belief that there is inherent value in martyrdom.
- Open Grand FinalThat we regret the norm of parents financially supporting their children after they become adults.
- Open Grand FinalThat we regret the vilification of communism.
Australs 2017 (2017)42 motions
- Round 1That we should require prospective parents to obtain a parenting licence prior to having children
- Round 1That we should allow pro-life organisations to pay women considering abortion to carry their pregnancies to term
- Round 1Assuming it is possible to copy the consciousness of the deceased onto another person, that we should allow the parents of deceased children to do so onto orphaned infants
- Round 2That we should oppose fashion and beauty as tools of gendered self-expression (e.g. wearing of heels and makeup)
- Round 2That we regret the trend away from valuing art for its technical qualities in favour of abstract characteristics (e.g. conceptual intent, contextual appreciation, uniqueness)
- Round 2That you should not solve the murder in the remaining episodes.
- Round 3In countries with a quota for refugees, that governments should allow and facilitate citizens to offer asylum to additional refugees in their homes
- Round 3That progressive media in the Philippines should not self-censor coverage of extra-judicial killings where they involve victims with serious criminal histories (e.g. known drug lords)
- Round 3That the West should provide international assistance to the North Korean regime for the exploration, extraction and development of Rare Earth Minerals (REMs)
- Round 4That we should nationalise all residential housing
- Round 4That we should require professional sports leagues to require open entry and exit for new and existing franchises
- Round 4That we should cap lending to any individual, household or company below a maximum debt-to-income ratio
- Round 5That we support a men’s rights movement
- Round 5That we support a pedophile rights movement
- Round 5That we should abolish national representative sporting teams
- Round 6That we support China’s cap on foreign made films
- Round 6That all European Union member states should hold simultaneous referenda on their EU membership
- Round 6That the Clintons should cease all engagement in US politics and public life
- Round 7That we should ban individuals from self-harm as a form of religious penance
- Round 7That, in secular states, religiosity should be an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes which go against the teachings of the offender's religion
- Round 7That anti-theists should donate to, and actively support progressive and/or liberal churches
- Round 8That the state should compensate individuals who are found ‘not guilty’ at trial
- Round 8That mediation should be mandatory before initiating court proceedings in family law
- Round 8That all trials should be incorporeal trials
- Open OctofinalsThat feminists should support the provision of wife bonuses in pre-nuptial agreements
- Open OctofinalsThat we regret the concept of unconditional love
- Open OctofinalsThat, in jurisdictions with abortion on demand, we should allow paper abortion
- ESL SemifinalsThat we support the creation of body corporate/owners corporation/strata community in which owners are able to make prescriptive rules and regulations to live in the community, and can forcibly remove owners who do not comply
- ESL SemifinalsThat schools should prioritise teachers' knowledge of their subject area over their knowledge of pedagogy and educational theory
- ESL SemifinalsThat, as a teacher, we should contradict curriculum that we believe will be harmful to society
- Open QuarterfinalsThat the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) should train their civilian populations in armed insurgency
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we support the mobilisation of Shia militia (eg. People's mobilisation forces) in the battle against the Islamic State
- Open QuarterfinalsThat a state pursuing policies with the effect of denying other states access to essential resources (food, water, etc.) that could not otherwise be obtained, should be legitimate grounds for military action
- Open SemifinalsThat Black Lives Matter should closely integrate the black church and elements of black liberation theology (the narrative that liberating the oppressed is the core of Christian doctrine) into its organisational structure and doctrines.
- Open SemifinalsThat Muslims should abandon the usage of the label ‘moderate Muslim’ in identifying themselves
- Open SemifinalsThat we would deny land rights to, and if necessary, forcefully relocate indigenous communities whose culture and way of life are responsible for environmental degradation (eg. timber plundering, destruction of high conservation value areas, seal clubbing, etc.)
- ESL Grand FinalThat we should allow organ donors, or their families in case of death, the right to stipulate the recipient of an organ donation.
- ESL Grand FinalThat, where commercial surrogacy is legal, surrogates should be permitted to unilaterally withdraw from surrogacy contracts at any point, without any liability
- ESL Grand FinalThat we regret the assumption that people who work in community-based or care professions do so out of genuine emotional attachment (e.g that nurses care about their patients, or teachers about their students)
- Open Grand FinalThat we support the creation of autonomously governed ocean-based communities (ie. seasteading)
- Open Grand FinalThat we should require businesses who profit from cultural traditions (ethnic restaurants/cultural tourism/yoga studios) to obtain a licence from minority community groups, based on conditions of their choosing
- Open Grand FinalThat European States which remained neutral during World War II should pay compensation to States occupied by Nazi Germany
Australs 2016 (2016)42 motions
- Round 1That where private prisons exist, they should be allowed to train/educate inmates in return for a percentage of that prisoner’s income that they earn after they leave prison.
- Round 1That we should ban litigation funding.
- Round 1That the state should fully compensate the victims of crimes committed by recidivist criminals.
- Round 2That we should allow people to sue media companies over harms that are created due to factual misinformation that they published.
- Round 2That we should regret dating/hookup websites allowing their users filtering results on the basis of demographic characteristics (race, gender, age etc.)
- Round 2That Facebook should proactively suppress extremist content
- Round 3That we should reject the culture of fearing death.
- Round 3That we would prefer a world with only one language.
- Round 3That humans should attempt to suppress their sense of beauty.
- Round 4That public universities should not implement speech codes or codes of conduct that limit expression beyond the laws of that country.
- Round 4That we should regret the increasing dominance of academic discourse in civil rights movements (eg gender studies to feminism and queer studies to that queer rights movement)
- Round 4That universities and companies should only be allowed to recruit students and employees via a blind application process.
- Round 5That we should ban animal eugenics programmes (eg: selective breeding and pure breeding)
- Round 5That we should cease all state initiated conservation projects
- Round 5That we should oppose giving human rights to individual animals who pass self-recognition tests unless the whole species are granted those rights
- Round 6That citizenships should be placed on an international market for sale and purchase.
- Round 6That the European Union should opt for less integration among its current member states.
- Round 6That refugees should be able to bypass standard refugee quotas and procedures if they have an individual citizen take responsibility for them.
- Round 7That we should legalise secondary strikes/solidarity action. (industrial action taken by a workforce in support of another, separate workforce)
- Round 7That we should allow employees to give up workplace rights in exchange for higher wages.
- Round 7That we would prefer a world where the norm is that people hold multiple part time jobs instead of the current norm of one full time job.
- Round 8That where the state has negotiated a sale of public land they must first offer indigenous groups the chance to purchase the land on the same terms.
- Round 8That the state should exclusively focus on recifying current inequalities to the exclusion of compensating for historical injustices
- Round 8That local communities should be able to cap the number of tourists that enter their region over a specific period of time
- Open OctofinalsThat, where home schooling exists, we should ban religious individuals from homeschooling their children.
- Open OctofinalsThat we, as the Catholic Church, would abolish sainthoods and canonisation.
- Open OctofinalsThat individuals should always have the right to temporarily enter a state for the purposes of pilgrimage.
- ESL SemifinalsThat the narrative that charitable initiatives can be profitable (eg microfinancing, impact investment) has done more harm than good.
- ESL SemifinalsThat charities should not accept donations made by public figures as part of a public apology (eg public figures who are criticised for being misogynists and then donate to domestic violence charities).
- ESL SemifinalsThat the state should not provide legal recognition and support to charities whose main goal is to raise awareness.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we regret the efforts of the United States to make housing more affordable.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we, as China, should compensate venture capital/private equity firms for investment losses in China.
- Open QuarterfinalsThat the pro-Palestine movement should not liken Israel to apartheid.
- Open SemifinalsThat we should abolish corporate/company tax.
- Open SemifinalsThat we should establish an international body responsible for taxing and redistributing income earned by multi-national corporations such as Facebook and Google.
- Open SemifinalsThat we should allow income splitting. (Income splitting allows a person to allocate part of their income to their partner for tax purposes. Eg Kirkby earns $0, Nick earns $100,000. Each is taxed at $50,000 each. It is not taxing them at $100,000 as if they are one person.)
- ESL Grand FinalThat we should oppose the Teach for All programme.
- ESL Grand FinalThat as a middle class African-American parent, given the choice between an under-performing but predominantly African American school and a high performing but predominantly white school, we should choose to send our children to the predominantly African-American school.
- ESL Grand FinalThat we should give control of education curriculum administration and policy (eg teacher pay and curricula) to teachers’ unions.
- Open Grand FinalThat the modern breast feeding movement has done more harm than good
- Open Grand FinalThat feminists should oppose drag culture
- Open Grand FinalThat feminists should refrain from using the act of sex to further their personal or political goals
Australs 2015 (2015)45 motions
- Round 1That we should prohibit police departments from having specialised public relations staff
- Round 1That jurors should be allowed to directly cross examine witnesses
- Round 1That we should remove statutes of limitation for all crimes
- Round 2That those who live in states that suffer rampant corruption should evade tax
- Round 2That we welcome China's establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund
- Round 2That we should allow citizens to donate to recognised charities of their own choosing instead of paying income tax
- Round 3That we should refrain from characterising villains of history as monsters
- Round 3That curricula in post-colonial states should focus on locally-authored literature, to the absolute exclusion of 'great work' such as Shakespeare
- Round 3That the media should have suppressed any reference to Dylan Roof's mental illness, and instead focus exclusively on racism as an explanation for Charleston massacre.
- Round 4That we should make Boards of Trustees at colleges and universities personally liable for sexual crimes committed by their students against other students
- Round 4That any potential romantic partners or professional sports players should deny them all physical and emotional contact until clubs and sports authorities agree to structural reforms to combat sexism
- Round 4That we should permanently remove men who abuse their partners from secluded communities where domestic violence is entrenched.
- Round 5That Germany should prosecute United States government officials for torture in German courts, regardless of their participation in the trial
- Round 5That member states of the International Criminal Court should be required to violate sovereignty to make arrests on behalf of the ICC
- Round 5That we regret the Arabisation of Islam in South East Asia
- Round 6That as a progressive person, we regret the changes made to the Catholic Church and its direction ushered in by Pope Francis
- Round 6That religious organisations should be exempt from employment discrimination law when hiring for 'non-religious' roles (e.g. secretaries, doctors, contractors)
- Round 6That we regret the involvement of the church, its leaders and the language of religion (i.e. redemption, absolution) in truth and conciliation processes.
- Round 7presuming it were possible, That we would opt for a digital existence over a physical one
- Round 7presuming feasibility, That we should allow individuals to selectively erase others' memories of them
- Round 7in a world where it exists, That love with artificial intelligence is as valid as love with a human
- Round 8That we regret Iraq's policy of offering its citizens large sums of money to personally kill terrorist militants
- Round 8That Western states should block ransom payments made by families for the release of ISIS captives
- Round 8in the face of an overwhelming failure of conventional responses by nation-states, That churches should encourage and materially support able members of their congregation to go and fight against ISIS
- Open OctofinalsThat criminal justice policy should be outsourced to technocrats in place of elected representatives
- Open OctofinalsThat political parties should be compelled to retain membership racially proportional to the population
- Open OctofinalsThat within progressive social justice movements, allies from majorities ought to remain silent
- EFL SemifinalsThat governments who fail to disaster-proof should be held liable for the deaths of their citizens in the event of a natural disaster
- EFL SemifinalsThat Greece should sell sovereign control over portions of its territory to private companies in order to finance its debt repayment
- EFL SemifinalsThat we celebrate the proliferation of regionally specific human rights instruments such as the Arab Charter on Human Rights, despite deviations from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Open QuarterfinalsThat states should not enter into international agreements that contain investor-state dispute settlement provisions
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we should require companies that develop innovations disrupting established industries to pay compensation to the labour forces they make redundant
- Open QuarterfinalsThat we should privatise the ocean
- Open SemifinalsThat faced with a choice between purchasing desirable but non-essential products (e.g. Starbucks) over spending on alleviating suffering (e.g. donating to charity), that we ought to always do the latter
- Open SemifinalsThat we should not prosecute those who, for reasons of mercy, kill family members who are physically or mentally incapable of consenting to death
- Open SemifinalsThat the government should pre-emptively and aggressively intervene in individuals' lives based on data-driven predictions in areas such as health, education and crime
- EFL Grand FinalThat companies should be compelled to finance their female employees to freeze their eggs and subsequently undergo in vitro fertilisation (IVF)
- EFL Grand FinalWhere conflicts have disproportionately harmed women, That post-conflict states should exclusively appoint women to positions of leadership in the military
- EFL Grand FinalThat we should prosecute fathers who choose to walk out on their children for criminal negligence, irrespective of whether they pay child support
- ESL Grand FinalThat journalists and media organisations who cover conflicts should be required to render reasonable assistance to the victims, even where it directly jeopardises their coverage
- ESL Grand FinalThat living people owe a moral obligation to preserve an equivalent to present standard of living for future generations
- ESL Grand FinalThat we should demonise neutral states that refrain from taking action in conflicts with a definitely identifiable oppressor
- Open Grand FinalThat we regret the commercialisation of Pride
- Open Grand FinalThat African Americans should embrace claims made by white individuals, such as Rachel Dolezal, to identify as part of their community
- Open Grand FinalThat we cannot achieve social justice
Breaking here
26% of teams break
Teams usually guarantee their break on 7 points.
Break on speaks? Average at least 77.3.
Last edition: 29 of 135 teams broke.
- 20157 pts19/78
- 20167 pts18/74
- 20177 pts21/79
- 2018cut unknown25/90
- 20197 pts · 77.3 speaks22/76
- 20208 pts · 77.3 speaks29/135
~??% estimated break chance
??.?–??.? estimated speaker score
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Break categories
This tournament runs a separate break for each category. From the most recent edition:
- Open break29 teams
- ESL break24 teams
- EFL break9 teams
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