Go back to Where You Came From last night was fantastic viewing and should be compulsory watching for all Australians. Superb work by SBS. But just how much impact can the show have without the reach of commercial television? After the three nights of the show are done will there be an outcry like was seen over live animal exports. Unfortunately, highly unlikely.
Would you send me back?
As mentioned on a blog post published by UNICEF last week – Why is it that so much more public outrage occurred in response to the treatment of live cattle being exported to Indonesia, compared to the deporting of people to Malaysia under the Gillard government’s refugee swap scheme?
One of the biggest issues is ignorance.
There is a definite lack of education. Which was clearly illustrated last night. How do people know if they don’t see.
Did you know that in 2010, Australia accepted 0.03% of the world’s refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people; of the 43.3 million refugees globally, we took just 13 750.
Go Back to Where you Came From is creating superb uncomfortable viewing that has the ability to humanise asylum seekers. Lets just hope that a commercial channel picks up Go Back in the near future so it reaches the minds of the masses that need to be educated.
Everyone loves a little test.
In the meantime send some mates who need a little education on the issue this great interactive Asylum Seeker fact tester which lives over on the SBS website. Also if you missed last night you can watch it here.
Finally, if you had fled war, terror, starvation… would you go back to where you came from? Highly unlikely. And do you think Raquel will survive her experience in Malaysia? Again, highly unlikely. Great viewing tonight indeed.
Sarah Försterling 
Great post Sarah. As I read today – while SBS scored it’s highest ratings for the year last night with 524,000 viewers, Channel Nine’s The Block had 1.114 million viewers and Seven’s Australia’s Got Talent was the top-rater with an average of 1.756 viewers.
Maybe SBS should turn their Know the Facts quiz into a drinking game- bottoms-up for every question they answer correctly. Could be a sobering lesson…heck don’t know how I’d go:S
Love this concept Chez! Nothing like a drinking game to get Australians to remember some hard facts – anything for a drink 🙂
Great to watch something interesting, engaging, educating (and even entertaining at times 🙂 ) I join your wish ” Lets just hope that a commercial channel picks up Go Back in the near future so it reaches the minds of the masses that need to be educated.” yet somehow within the commercial reality of TV channels, somehow I can’t see it happening.
Thanks for the comments. Again, hats off to SBS, hopefully commercial channels will follow…. regardless of which side people take in the asylum seeker debate at least shows like this have the ability to make that choice an educated one. Enjoy tonight’s episode 🙂
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