Although they tried desperately to dominate the debate, the council team of Mayor Owen Hasler, Cr Rebecca Ryan and Cultural Development Officer, Susan Wilson – aided and abetted by advisor Greg Learmont – went down to the slick teams from St Mary’s College and Gunnedah High School.

Introduced by acting General Manager, Eric Groth, the council team had to convince the audience and adjudicators that “Council Jobs are Boring”.

Although they tried every trick in the book, the affirmative team did not have a leg to stand on, with the St Mary’s team taking advantage of council’s colourful description of “dynamic, stimulating and satisfying” positions-vacant on its website.

St Mary’s students also tried to impress upon the council team that “attitude was one of the important factors in ensuring that a job was not boring”.

As each team rebutted or underlined different points, the adjudicators Terry Curran, Meryl Hennesssy and Brian Gregson were hard at work adding or deducting points.

The St Mary’s team was finally able to convince council staff that their jobs could not possibley be boring as there was not a very high turnover of staff – meaning that there was “great job satisfaction in ensuring that the town thrived”.

The second debate against Gunnedah High School was a reversal of roles as the IT savvy team of young students had to convince the older team of council employees that “Traditional Media Is Better Than Social Media”.

In a light-hearted look at the way news can spin around the world in seconds compared to the reliability of traditional media, the High School team had to go against everything a modern student knows and believes in, to champion the cause of newspapers and radio.

The students addressed problems with privacy issues and bullying on social media, while underlining the importance of the strict media laws associated with traditional media, while council staff pushed the instant gratification of being able to communicate with organisations around the world. 

The skill and experience of the students who are regularly involved in debating programs shone through in both debates and adjudicator Terry Curran said he was very impressed with the well structured arguments of the youth teams.

He also congratulated the schools and teachers for continuing to foster debating and public speaking.

Gunnedah High’s Alex Koenig was named “best speaker”.

Mayor Hasler was also high in his praise of the students and invited them to apply for the role of Mayor For a Day where they would have the opportunity to be involved in Local Government, assisting the Mayor and taking part in a general meeting of council.