Debate and how does it differ from other forms of direct communication

Leader of the Opposition

(First Speaker of the Opening Opposition, LO)

Your role is to present the opposition's position in relation to the Government's case. You have only 5 minutes to come up with your position, but assuming the Government has presented the case under debate, you will have a limited amount of time to prepare. Outline and disclose your position. Then go through the points made by the Government and show the connection between the reason for their failure and your team's central position, whatever it may be. Remember, the task of the last Opposition is to refute all four Government speakers in their five minute speech and summarize everything said by the Opposition. At the time of the LO speech, you have only seen one Speaker of Government, so you cannot say: "The Last Opposition Speech". Look at it in terms of proportions. You've only just seen a quarter of the Government game, so no more than a quarter of your speech should be spent on rebuttal. The remaining time should be devoted to highlighting the "independent" line of opposition. It is also your responsibility to decide whether the subject matter of the debate is set correctly. If it is not (you must be absolutely certain of this), you must provide an alternative bill. You can't just say, "It's a truism," while spending 5 minutes telling you why it is, and then sit down afterwards. If you do so, you will fail in your duties as the Opening Opposition. If you are able to identify a truism, you should subsequently reformulate, or finally change, the Government's case by making it debatable.