50 Important Quotes You Should Pay Attention to in Go Back To Where You Came From

Access 40 more quotes from Go Back To Where You Came From and our downloadable list!

Quotes About Relationships

#11: “We just have to survive. And that’s all we’re doing in there is surviving because it certainly isn’t living.” 

• Techniques: Hand-held camera shot, Close-up single shot 
• Speaker: Gleny
• Episode 2 

#12: “We all have hearts (…) If they touch your heat … you understand”

• Techniques: Close up-single shot, Panning shot 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 2 

#13: “I’ve had problems carrying pregnancies through… I do know where she’s coming from.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Single-panning shots 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 1 

#14: “I think it would be a crime to bring the children on the boat.” 

• Techniques: Hand-held camera shot, Wide-angle shot 
• Speaker: Gleny 
• Episode 3 

#15: “I hope they are bad, bad people… It’s going to be harder to watch if they’re really nice people getting turfed out of their place.” 

• Techniques: Repetition, Interview, Hand-held camera shot 
• Speaker: Raye 
• Episode 2

#16: “I don’t know how I feel… it’s pretty sad… I don’t know… I’m certainly not relishing in it.” 

• Techniques: Stream of consciousness, Interview, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Adam
• Episode 2 

#17: “I wanted to somehow stop it… they can’t do that; these people are just trying to get a living they’re trying to survive.” 

• Techniques: Mid shot, Hand-held camera shot 
• Speaker: Gleny 
• Episode 2 

#18: “If you touch hearts, you are able to make a change.” 

• Techniques: Metaphor, Interview, Single shot 
• Speaker: Roderick 
• Episode 3 

#19: “I had no idea it was so bad. I mean, to have a sick baby and because she has no money, the baby dies. How do you live with that?”

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, Interview, Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Raye 
• Episode 1 

#20: “If it meant taking a risk, their whole life has been a risk since fleeing their home, what’s one more risk… that’s about all they’re doing in there is surviving.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Adam 
• Episode 3 

Quotes About Immigrants 

#21: “We must stop the boats.” 

• Techniques: Archival footage, Mid shot 
• Speaker: Tony Abbot 
• Episode 1 

#22: “We’re spending millions of dollars on housing these criminals.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Adam 
• Episode 1 

#23: “I would love to have a refugee come and stay with me; I think detention centres are inhumane.” 

• Techniques: Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Gleny
• Episode 1 

#24: “Needs to send a tougher signal out… People who come here by boat without any documentation should be immediately expatriated.”

• Techniques: Interview, Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Darren 
• Episode 1 

#25: “If it was up to me, I would send them back to their country.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Mid-shot 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 1 

#26: Voiceover: “What does we know of those who risk life and limb to reach these shores… fifty people are feared dead.” 

• Techniques: Archival footage, Voiceover narration, Panning shots 
• Episode 2 

#27: “It doesn’t matter if refugees come by boat or plane. The ones that come by boat are probably more desperate, have less choices.” 

• Techniques: Hand-held camera, Panning shots
• Speaker: Roderick 
• Episode 3

#28: “I was a very close-minded person and very tunnel-visioned… If it means freedom, it’s worth it.”

• Techniques: Low-angle shot, Hand-held camera shot 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 3

#29: “[Refugees] land on a safe haven in Indonesia, so why are they then taking that boat journey to Australia?”

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, Interviews
• Speaker: Darren 
• Episode 1 

#30: “If it was up to me, I would send them back to their country.”

• Techniques: Interview, Mid-shot 
• Speaker: Raquel 
• Episode 1 

Quotes About Conflicting Culture and Class

#31: “I don’t care. I dress how I want to. If they wanna wear tea towels and long pants that’s their problem.” 

• Techniques: Hand-held camera shot, Mid shot
• Speaker: Raquel 
• Episode 2

#32: “I don’t put these people in that category. There are people just trying to get away from persecution.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Gleny
• Episode 1 

#33: “Find a new life and a new start somewhere, and I don’t call that criminal.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Close-up shot 
• Speaker: Adam 
• Episode 3

#34: “They’re human beings for heaven’s sake, why treat them like this?”

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 2

#35: “90% of people who arrive by boat are found to be refugees (…) I’m not going to call them queue jumpers anymore, probably system dodgers.” 

• Techniques: Logos, Interviews, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Voice over 
• Episode 1 

#36: “The more you have, the less desire you have to learn, and the less they release how lucky they are.” 

• Techniques: Metaphor, Mid-shot 
• Speaker: Gleny
• Episode 2

#37: “I don’t feel comfortable (…) I don’t wanna be here.” 

• Techniques: Interviews, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Raquel 
• Episode 2

#38: “I guess this family is nice but that doesn’t mean that every other African or refugee is gonna be as nice as this family.” 

• Techniques: Single-close-up shot
• Speaker: Raquel 
• Episode 1 

#39: “This tells me that they’re nothing but economic refugees.” 

• Techniques: Interviews, Mid-single shot 
• Speaker: Darren 
• Episode 1 

#40: “If [the raid] happened to [the Chins] I’d be just distraught.” 

• Techniques: Hand-held camera shot, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 2 

Quotes About Displacement and Acceptance 

#41: “I’d get in a boat.” 

• Techniques: Close-up shot 
• Speaker: Gleny 
• Episode 1 

#42: “I had no idea it was so bad … how could you live like that?” 

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, Mid-shot, Panning shot 
• Speaker: Adam 
• Episode 2

#43: “Teachers, Doctors, Engineers … they’ll never get to be that.” 

• Techniques: [Listing technique], Stream of consciousness, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Raye 
• Episode 2

#44: “I would like to see the weight of everything bumped up… I can understand it, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.” 

• Techniques: Interview, Single-close-up shot, Hand-held camera shot
• Speaker: Darren
• Episode 3 

#45: “I was surprised by some of the elements that was left out.” 

• Techniques: Mid shot
• Speaker: Raye 
• The Response 

#46: “I think life is built on emotions. So, the emotions that I’ve felt over the past few weeks is just, I think is human nature.” 

• Techniques: Stream of consciousness, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Adam 
• The Response 

#47: “They’re not safe here… It’s almost like a detention centre that they’ve created for themselves.” 

• Techniques: Close-up shot, Panning shot
• Speaker: Roderick 
• Episode 3 

#48: “It’s a very tense situation, I’m just churning inside.” 

• Techniques: Metaphor, Single-close-up shot, Interviews 
• Speaker: Raye
• Episode 2 

#49: “I think people should give people a chance before they judge a book by its cover?” 

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, Single-close-up shot 
• Speaker: Raquel 
• Episode 3 

#50: “Ultimately, the problem is that of the source country, that’s where their freedom was taken away.”

• Techniques: Mid-shot, Interviews, Panning shot, Close-up shots
• Speaker: Roderick
• Episode 2