Australia-Asia debate

Australia-Asia Debate is a form of academic debate. In the past few years, this style of debating has increased in usage dramatically throughout both Australia and the Asian region, but in the case of the Philippines, the format is also used alongside the British Parliamentary Format. The context in which the Australia-Asia style of debate is used varies, but it is commonly used in Australia at the primary and secondary school level, ranging from small informal one-off intra-school debates to larger more formal inter-school competitions with several rounds and a finals series which occur over a year. It is also commonly used at university level.

Australia-Asia style debates consist of two teams who debate over an issue, more commonly called a topic or proposition. The issue, by convention, is presented in the form of an affirmative statement beginning with "That", for example, "That cats are better than dogs," or "This House," for example "This House would establish a world government." The subject of topics can vary from region to region.

The two teams in Australia–Asia debating are called the "Affirmative" or "Proposition" or "Government" and the "Negative" or "Opposition". The affirmative team agrees with the topic and presents arguments to demonstrate the truth of the topic. The negative team disagrees with the topic and presents arguments to disprove the truth of the topic. Each team must convince the adjudicator(s) (judge(s)) that their side of the topic is correct and that their opposition's is incorrect. Depending on the context in which a debate is being presented it may be appropriate for the audience to decide the winner of the debate. However, in formal debating the adjudicator is responsible for deciding the winner of the debate.

Each team comprises three members, each of whom is named according to their team and speaking position within his or her team. For instance, the second speaker of the affirmative team to speak is called the "second affirmative speaker" (or "second proposition speaker"). Alternatively, the affirmative speakers may be referred to as "Prime Minister", "Deputy Prime Minister", and "Government Whip", while the negative speakers may be referred to as "Opposition Leader", "Deputy Opposition Leader", and "Opposition Whip". However, these names are not commonly used. Each of the six speakers (three affirmative and three negative) speak in succession, beginning with the first affirmative speaker. The speaking order is therefore as follows: first affirmative, first negative, second affirmative, second negative, third affirmative, and finally third negative.

Each speaker has a set speaking time according to the rules agreed to by both teams. In formal debate contexts, such as school debating competitions in Australia, the speaking time is proportional to the school Year Level division that a team is competing in. For example, Year 6 debaters may have a speaking time of ~3 minutes, while Year 11 and 12 debaters may have a speaking time of ~8–10 minutes. There is no universally adopted speaking time.

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