Adjudication

Chief Adjudicator

Chris Bishop

The Auckland Australs 2010 Bid Team is pleased to announce that Christopher Bishop, formerly of Victoria University of Wellington, will be the Chief Adjudicator for an Auckland Australs in 2010. Chris brings enormous experience to the role and has a distinguished record both as a debater and adjudicator, with highlights including:

  • Australs Runner-Up 2007, two-time top 10 speaker, and two-time quarter-finalist;
  • Winner of the 2007 Cambridge IV, and Runner-Up at the Oxford and UCD IV;
  • Two-time Worlds octo-finalist;
  • Chair of a semi-final panel at Cork Worlds 2009;
  • Semi-final adjudicator at Australs 2006;
  • Numerous New Zealand tournament achievements including two-time winner of the Joynt Scroll and Officers’ Cup, and three-time winner of the NZ British Parliamentary Debating Championship;
  • Chief Adjudicator of New Zealand Officers’ Cup, Joynt Scroll, and British Parliamentary Championships.

Chris has also twice been President of the Victoria University of Wellington Debating Society, President of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Association, and convener of Vic Australs in 2006 – widely regarded as one of the best Australs tournaments of recent years.

Chris currently works as a Ministerial Advisor to a senior New Zealand Cabinet Minister.

Deputy Chief Adjudicators

Tim Jeffrie
Currently of Monash University, Tim is a former Grand Finalist at Worlds (2008), and a semi-finalist and top ten speaker at Australs (2007). He is a former winner of Melbourne Mini (2007), ADAM (2005 and 2007), a runner-up at Sydney Mini (2006), and a semi-finalist at WUPID (2007), and Australian Easters (2005). He recently served as a DCA for Australian Easters in Queensland and was the Chief Adjudicator of the 2008 Melbourne Mini. Tim has had a long involvement with the Monash Association of Debaters and has run the Victorian schools competition and coached the champion Victorian State debating team.

Sharmila Parmanand
Formerly of Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, Sharmila has been a Grand Finalist at Australs (2005), a semi-finalist (2006 and 2008), a quarter-finalist (2007), and was the 4th ranked speaker in 2008. She is a three time winner of the Asian University Debating Championships, a Worlds octo-finalist (2007), and a three-time Philippine national champion. She judged the semi-finals of Worlds in Cork, was the CA for AUDC 2009, and has been the DCA or CA for an array of regional tournaments. Since 2004 she was facilitated over 50 free basic and advanced debating workshops/coaching sessions and debating tournaments for school and university students in Asia, as well as serving in a variety of capacities for the Ateneo Debate Society and the AUDC.

Christopher Croke
Currently of the University of Sydney, Chris is a former Grand Finalist and top ten speaker at Worlds (2008 and 2007 respectively), and quarter-finalist (2004) at Australs. He is a former winner of WUPID (2007), a Grand Finalist at Sydney Mini (2007 and 2005), and a Grand Finalist at Melbourne Mini (2007). He won Australian Easters in 2004 and was the third best speaker. He was recently a DCA for Australian Easters in Queensland, whilst at Worlds in Cork he judged to the main break quarter-finals and the ESL Grand Final. Chris is the President of the NSW Debating Union and was the coach of the champion NSW State Debating team in 2008.

Adjudication Information

Adjudicator Testing and Judge Allocation

All adjudicators registered at Auckland Australs will sit an adjudication test (featuring a live debate as well as a short question and answer session), and submit an adjudication CV. The test will be blind-marked and results will be confidential to the CA and DCAs.

This test, plus the submitted CV, will form the basis of a judge’s initial room allocation.

As the tournament progresses, all debaters will fill out feedback forms on the chair of their adjudication panels. Chairs of panels will fill out feedback on their panelists, and vice versa. Feedback will become progressively more important as the tournament goes on (replacing the test score and CV), so that the best judges make the break.

Attending Adjudicators

Auckland Australs can guarantee a pool of high quality judges from Auckland, as well as from all over New Zealand. New Zealand judges are very familiar with the Australs style of debating. The style is very similar to those used at the two major domestic tournaments in New Zealand, as well as the NZ schools debating format.

New Zealand operates its own credible and successful adjudicator accreditation programme, in which trainee adjudicators shadow judge numerous debates at New Zealand tournaments. Only judges who have been through the programme are allowed to adjudicate debates at intervarsity tournaments in New Zealand.

When Victoria University hosted Australs in Wellington in 2006, many successful former WUDC and Australs debaters and adjudicators from New Zealand attended as judges – and early indications are that the same would happen in 2010 in Auckland.