Last Wednesday night both of PBC’s senior debate teams were in the Quarter Finals round of the Gold Coast Debating Competition held at Aquinas College, Southport. The adjudicator congratulated PBC in getting two teams to this stage of the competition but unfortunately they were pitted against each other in a hard fought debate over the tough topic ‘Politicians are paid enough’. This was a short prep debate – students were only given the topic on the night and a short time to prepare without the use of any electronics or access to other materials. It was a nail-biting event as each team rebutted the others’ arguments, raised more points and challenged speaker’s individual statements along the way by raising ‘points of information’. Both teams presented very strong arguments but unfortunately there could only be one winner. The Year 11 team comprised of Robbie James, Toby Cooper and Talulah Ratcliffe narrowly defeated the Year 12 team of Kaitlyn Byrne, Brock Watson and Aaron Morrow.  The Year 11 team will now progress to the final to be held at Somerset College on 14 August. We wish them all the best, as we also wish our Year 8 team the best as they compete in their quarter final against AB Paterson College next Wednesday 7 August.