There are many different styles of debating, ranging from unlimited preparation time to just three minutes. The section below explains the main styles, and any tweaks on them that occur in any tournaments. Make sure if you’re not quite sure of a particular style, you get in touch with someone else in Debsoc to help explain it to you.

Easters Style:

Easters style debates are famed for being quick and a lot of fun.
In an Easters debate there are two teams – the traditional affirmative and negative. Each side has two speakers each. An official has two moots that are concealed from the debaters, and a stopwatch to watch over the preparation period.

1) A coin is tossed. Whoever wins the coin toss is allowed to choose
        a) Topic – the team is shown the two moots privately, and has one minute to decide which they would like to debate.
or    b) Side – the other team is shown the two moots, and has one minute to decide which they would like.

2) The topic is then announced to the other team. Whichever team chose the topic then has to wait for one minute while the other team chooses which side they would like to debate – either affirming (and therefore speaking first) or negating the topic.

3) Each team has 3 minutes to prepare the topic and their side of it to speak on. After three minutes the first affirmative speaker is called upon to begin the debate.

Speeches in Easters style are 4-6 minutes in length. There is one bell given at 4 minutes and two given at 6 minutes to signal these times.
The speaking order is the normal one – the first affirmative speaker starts, then the first negative, followed by the 2nd aff and then the 2nd neg.
Each team is given a 2-3 minute Leader’s reply. One bell will be given at 2 minutes and two bells at 3. These replies must be given by the first speaker of each team. As is traditional in all styles with Leader’s replies, the negative reply is first (directly following the 2nd neg speech) and the affirmative reply therefore ends the debate.

Easter’s style debates are awarded on a rough 50/50 division of matter and manner points. Matter refers to persuasive argumentation brought out in a debate, and manner refers to the way that it is presented by the speakers. An affirmative team should attempt to prove their case, or that a model which they established would prove effective. A negative team should try to attack that case using rebuttal and substantive counter-arguments.

Australs Style:

Australs style debating is the most commonly known in New Zealand. It, or close variants on it, are used often at school level debating.
In an Australs debate there is an affirmative and a negative team, each with three speakers. Three potential moots are kept secret by an official.

1) An official starts timing 30 minutes and the three topics are displayed in a place where both teams can see them.

2) Each team ranks the three moots from 1 to 3 on which they would rather debate. 1 is the most preferred choice.

3) The two teams come together and compare rankings. The moot(s) that each team ranked 3rd are automatically taken out, they will not be debated.
If          a) there is only one moot remaining then that is the one which is debated.
If          b) there are two left, but the teams have ranked those two the same way, then the 1st ranked topic by both teams is debated.
Else if   c) there are two left, and they have been ranked the opposite way, a coin toss is had to choose which team gets to use their 1st ranked moot.

The teams then leave to prepare for the debate for the remainder of the 30 minutes being timed. The affirmative team is allowed to prepare in the designated room of the debate. The negative team must find somewhere else to prepare.

4) After the 30 minutes is up the teams are summoned and the first affirmative speaker is called upon to begin the debate.

Speeches are from 6-8 minutes. One bell is given at 6 minutes and 2 at 8 minutes.
As with Easters debating, the affirmative speaker of each position goes before the negative speaker of that same position.
Each team is given a 3-4 minute Leader’s reply, with one bell at 3 minutes and two at 4 minutes. Only the 1st or 2nd speakers of either team may give this reply. As with all styles which have replies, the negative reply goes first, immediately following the 3rd negative speech. The affirmative reply ends the debate.

Australs style debates are awarded in the same way as Easters debates, except that what is known as a “straight negative” is not allowed. This means that the negative team cannot simply show that the other team’s case will not work. They have to show either that it will make the problem established worse, or the negative must provide and prove a better means of solving the moot.

Prepared Style:

Prepared style debating is used at New Zealand’s Joynt Scroll tournament.
Instead of having moots set aside just before the debate, one moot is announced well in advance of the debate – usually weeks. The two teams are then allowed to meet within themselves and discuss the debate and prepare speeches and material to take into the debate.

The debate follows the same format as Australs style, except that speeches are from 9-10 minutes, and Leader’s replies 4-5 minutes.
The key thing that differentiates this style of debating is that points of information may be used. These “POIs” allow a member of the team opposing the current speaker to stand and ask for permission to offer a POI. This is usually done simply by saying “on that point”, “point of information” or simply “maddam/sir”. The speaker on the floor is then allowed to accept or decline the POI. If declined, the debater offering the point must sit down immediately without speaking. If accepted, the debater is invited to ask a short question of the current speaker. Points should be short, witty and to the point, and should not be any longer than a couple of sentences or 15 seconds. It is important to note that the speaker at the front has control of the floor the whole time, and can ask a debater to sit down, or instruct that s/he has understood the point without need for further explanation. Following the point, the speaker is expected to answer the point in any fashion, so as to defend their case.

POIs can be offered during any of the substantive speeches, but not during Leader’s replies. During these speeches they can be offered between the 1st and 9th minutes. For this reason there is one bell given after 1 minute, as well as another at 9 minutes and two at 10. Speakers are expected to accept around two POIs during their speech, however opposition teams are expected to offer many more than that.

Prepared debates are judged on similar criteria to Australs and Easters style debates, and straight negatives (see Australs style) are allowed.

British Parliamentary Style:

BP style is the most complex and different style when compared to the major New Zealand styles. It is the style that NZBP and Worlds are debated in.
In a BP debate there are four teams with two members each. Two teams are on the government side and two on the oppositon side. One team on each side is the opening team for their side, and the other is the closing. The teams are randomly given a position – OG, OO, CG or CO. In tournaments these will try to be evened out when possible within given debating match-ups. A topic is then announced and the teams are given 15 minutes’ preparation time for the debate. The OG team are allowed to prepare in the room set aside for the debate.

The names of the different speakers in the debate are as follows:
Opening Government (OG):
- Prime Minister
- Deputy Prime Minister

Opening Opposition (OO):
- Leader of the Opposition
- Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Closing Government (CG)/ Closing Opposition (CO):
- Government/ Opposition Member
- Government/ Opposition Whip

After the 15 minutes’ preparation time the Prime Minister is asked to open the debate.
Following the pattern of all styles the speaking order is: PM, LO, DPM, DLO, GM, OM, GW, OW.

Speeches are from 6-7 minutes with one bell after 1 minute, another one after 6 minutes, and two at 7 minutes. Between the first two bells points of information may be offered if the current speaker is from the other side of the house (as in not just another team but actually the other side). See Prepared Debating for information on POIs. POIs are extremely important in BP debating.
In BP style debating there are no Leader’s replies. The debate ends after the Opposition Whip’s speech has ended.

In BP debating, although teams share their side with another team, they are all in competition. Thus the teams are ranked 1st to 4th at the end of the debate.
An opening team in BP must do a similar job to in normal NZ debating. They must offer a case or a model (OG) or attempt to dismantle a case or model (OO). The key difference is in staying in the debate. Opening teams are marked highly when the issues which they raised are prevalent through the whole debate, not just the opening half. They are also marked on how well they stay in the debate through using POIs later in the debate to show the importance of arguments they raised.

The closing teams must both follow team lines consistent with their respective closing teams. If they do not it can be seen as “knifing” and look bad for a team. However the closing teams are in competition with their opening teams. They are expected to provide an extention to the debate – a new area of argumentation or sufficiently new analysis on issues already brought up. A closing team should still try to prove their case or dismantle the Governments, but should also try to do so in a sufficiently different or more effective manner than their opening team. The closing teams are also expected to summarise the debate. This is done in the two whip speeches and should frame the debate to attempt to show the importance of the extention or new analysis that was provided.

Plunket Medal Oratory Style:

Plunket Medal is not a debating competition, but an oration one. The orations are 10-12 minutes, with no bells of any kind. Speeches must reach 10 minutes or will be disqualified. Speeches going over 12 minutes will have points deducted. Orations must be given without notes also.

An oration is not a debate by any means. It is also not a comedy session, although humour is always a useful technique if employed well. An oration should move the audience and use various techniques to take the audience on a journey. It is not important to pick a motion as in debates, but more to pick a topic that you can use to employ emotion and make people think. For a great example, check the Debsoc Guide’s Video Section for Robbie Allan’s speech that won him the competition in 2007.

So those are the four debating styles and Plunket! Any debate you will do will be one of those styles or a minor varient on one.
Other tournaments in New Zealand or internally use:

Pro-Am: This is either Australs style with two amatuers and a “pro” or Easters style with one of each and a longer ammount of preparation time.

Australian Easters: This uses the Australs style with two amatuers and a “pro”.

Vic Champs: Vic Champs is run in the Australs style. Sometimes it is optional, if agreed on by both teams, to have POIs available. In Vic Champs there will only be one topic announced each round, not 3 as at Australs. Vic Champs may also take on 4-6 minute speeches and 2-3 minute replies to make speaking times shorter.

Thropy: Thropy uses the Australs style but with 4-6 minute speeches and 2-3 minute replies.