1663 days ago

The COVID conundrum

Alison Chamberlain from Rotary North Harbour

“Should sports teams and athletes compete overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic?”

Rotary North Harbour’s Great Debate between Carmel College and Westlake Girls High School thrashed this out with counter arguments and rebuttals interspersed with humour.

The teams, in order of speaking, included Members of Parliament:

Affirmative (Carmel College) - Madison Lockyer, Annabel Rhodes, MP David Seymour (Epsom), Ella Copley

Negative (Westlake Girls High School) - Aneta Du, Grace Chen, Lily Qi, MP Chlöe Swarbrick (Auckland Central)

A coin toss to delegate affirmative or negative roles half an hour before the start left limited time to prepare arguments. However both teams are very experienced debaters, the MPs perhaps less so with the strict rules of debate 😆, but they certainly brought a different approach.

The venue was packed and the adjudicators from the Auckland Debating Society congratulated both teams on their level of debating skills before awarding the moot to the negative.

An entertaining event that provided the students with a wonderful opportunity for personal development and interaction with sitting MPs whilst raising funds for Rotary projects.

Thanks to Partners Life Insurance for their sponsorship

Look out for next year’s debate.

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More messages from your neighbours
14 minutes ago

Poll: Do you set New Year’s resolutions?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

🎉 2026 is almost here!

We’re curious ... how do you welcome it?
Do you set resolutions, follow special traditions, or just go with the flow?

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Do you set New Year’s resolutions?
  • 0% Yes! New Year, New Me
    0% Complete
  • 0% Yes - but I rarely stick to them
    0% Complete
  • 0% Nah - not for me
    0% Complete
0 votes
10 days ago

Poll: 🗑️ Would you be keen to switch to a fortnightly rubbish collection, or do you prefer things as they are?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Aucklanders, our weekly rubbish collections are staying after councillors voted to scrap a proposed trial of fortnightly pick-ups.

We want to hear from you: would you be keen to switch to a fortnightly rubbish collection, or do you prefer things as they are?

Keen for the details? Read up about the scrapped collection trial here.

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🗑️ Would you be keen to switch to a fortnightly rubbish collection, or do you prefer things as they are?
  • 85% Same!
    85% Complete
  • 15% Would have liked to try something different
    15% Complete
519 votes
7 days ago

Poll: Is it ok to regift something that you have been given?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

🎁 Holiday Gift Chat!

Do you ever regift?
What’s your take on asking for a receipt if a gift doesn’t fit?

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Is it ok to regift something that you have been given?
  • 78.7% Yes! It's better to regift what I don't need
    78.7% Complete
  • 21.3% No. It's the thought and effort that matters
    21.3% Complete
1224 votes