The Evolution of Australian Attitudes: 'They're a Weird Mob' Analysis

This essay provides a critical analysis of the movie 'They're a Weird Mob,' examining how attitudes and legislation have shaped Australian society, particularly concerning diversity, expectations, and behavior. The essay uses the 1966 film as a case study to explore the experiences of Italian immigrants and the prevailing socio-cultural climate. It contrasts the movie's portrayal of immigration policies, racism, and workplace dynamics with current practices and legislation. The analysis covers the evolution of immigration policies, the persistence of racism in various institutions, and the impact of these factors on mental health and workplace environments. The essay also discusses the growth in foreign student enrollment and the efforts to address unacceptable behaviors in educational settings. It highlights the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees, the historical context of racism, and the government's efforts to combat racial discrimination. The essay concludes by emphasizing the ongoing relevance of the movie's themes in understanding contemporary Australian society, despite changes in specific immigration policies.

Running head: THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB
A Critical Analysis of how Attitudes and Legislation has Changed the Landscape in Australia in
terms of Diversity, Expectations and Behaviour
[They’re a Weird Mob]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB
A true story in the form of a real-life movie titled “They’re a Weird Mob” is being used
in this essay to understand the socio-cultural transition of Australia from ancient past to the
current times. The movie was being released in 1966 and the socio-cultural behaviours of that
time are being shown through it (YouTube, 2018). However, the movie itself looks to have
moved away from the actuality. It appears that some behaviour in the movie can just not be the
part of the Australian culture. The paper specifically studies the differences if there are any in
terms of socio-cultural beliefs as shown in the movie and of the modern day Australian people in
real.
In the movie, Nino is an Italian migrant and had recently arrived in Australia. The reason
behind the arrival was to fulfil his desire and utilise his passion for writing by working for his
cousin’s Italian Language based Magazine firm as a sports writer. However, Nino had all the
surprises being landed on him when Nino cam to know that his cousin is no longer owning the
Italian Language based magazine. This is because Nino’s cousin had a large debt to pay and his
cousin had no other option than to surrender the ownership to his debt provider Kay Kelly
(YouTube, 2018). The story has some other characters like Kay Kelly who had provided the debt
to Nino’s cousin. It had Kelly’s father Harry who had played the role of an Anglo-Irish and
shown to have immense hatred for Italian (YouTube, 2018).
The character of Nino is very simple and quite understandable also as it is always
advisable to adopt the country's culture the one is visiting as an immigrant. The characteristic of
Kelly is understandable also as the character seems to have developed a feeling for Nino. The
movie had revealed some very eye-catching moments where it is speaking of the legislation and
socio-cultural beliefs of Australian people in 1966 (YouTube, 2018). It is really very hard to trust
whether the scenes are portraying the factual things. The moment Nino landed to Sydney, he was

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misbehaved or inappropriately behaved by the immigration officer. The immigration officer was
very rude and strict as well. It is difficult to say why that is so. Nino was very courteous in his
approach; however, the immigration officer was not that so (YouTube, 2018). It means the
immigration officer was unnecessarily rude and strict to the Italian Nino. Additionally, Nino
was not being allowed to wait in the airport. He was rather being forced to depart from there and
said that no can wait inside the airport. This is really understanding how immigration officer can
force someone to leave the airport although it is quite valid to stay in the waiting zone (Fan,
Guthrie & Levinson, 2016).
The other moments were the interactions between Harry and Nino on different occasions.
Harry had hatred feelings for the Italian people. On the other hand, he had a picture of an Italian
pope on the wall of his home. Contradictions are evident in the two different thoughts (YouTube,
2018). Harry appears as proud, rude and racist. The character supports a fact that Australians are
racist. The movie also shows that workers are put to hard works. The work pressure is one of
the reasons for labours falling sick (YouTube, 2018).
The movie thus finds a few challenges like workplace stress, rude & strict behaviours
of immigration officers and racism in regards to legislation and the socio-cultural behaviours of
Australia in 1966. The findings are now being analysed under the existing practices of legislation
and the socio-cultural behaviours in Australia. According to Williams (2016), the immigration
policies are tougher and challenging as well for those who represent a suspicious character.
Those few characters are but not limited to like people not carrying the visa or have overstayed,
people with cancelled visa, people suspected to have been involved in smuggling cases and the
others. It means the character of an immigration officer displayed in the movie is perhaps not the

3THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB
true given the present legislative guidelines. Immigration officers may detent anybody who falls
under the mentioned categories.
Racism has been shown in the movie on quite a few occasions like when Harry reacted
very badly with Nino. When Nino went to Kelly’s house to meet her father, her father just said
that Harry hated writers, dagos or brickies. It just shows an anti-Italian thought in Harry. It also
cites racism in the character of Harry. The fact is quite true as well. After being fought to
extensive level, the Austrian government has not been able to abolish or control the racism
activities. Australia had signed the convention on the different kinds of racial discrimination.
They had executed it through the Race Discrimination Act 1975 (ABC News, 2018). Racism,
racist violence and race discrimination are still the part of the country. The administration has
failed to stop the racial activities. The government has been true in acknowledging the challenges
that they have in the form of racism (ABC News, 2018).
The current scenarios may be different to those depicted in the movie “They’re a Weird
Mob” for racial activities; however, the movie can be said to have revealed the fact. Despite the
government initiatives, there have not been any significant controls on the racial activities. The
immigrants and refugees are actually being targeted at the public level. The schools, high
schools, universities, workplaces and other social gathering places seem to have to carry the hard
truth (Forrest, Lean & Dunn, 2016).
At current, the number of foreign students coming to Australia has increased. There has
been a good growth in the number of foreign students being enrolled in a variety of courses in
Australia. Diversity is an evident part of Australian institutions now. There are mentors and
behavioural teachers being hired specifically for finding unacceptable behaviours. They also do

4THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB
their best once they are being informed of a case or they notice it through other possible ways.
They try to understand the situation by calling the victim student and the other who are the
convicts. Such mentors with their unconventional approach try to understand the real scenario.
Both parties such as the victim and the convicts are allowed to keep their points. The mentor then
judges the incident under the guidelines for preventing the racial activities. The mentor gives full
effort on resolving the issue and encourages both the parties to be friends (Forrest, Elias &
Paradies, 2016). However, this is also the scenario that in rare case such reporting is conveyed to
the mentor. Victims on many occasions do not trust on mentors and doubt on their capability.
This may be that they have the feelings that mentors will not be available all the time or
everywhere. Victims due to this or some more reasons keep on tolerating the racist behaviour
(Lentin, 2016).
The Australian workplace also has racism existing. Some employees have experienced
themselves whereas some do not deny the fact that racism exists in the workplace. They believe
that racism is highly evident at the time of recruitment. Preference is given to indigenous people,
not to those who are the immigrants and the refugees (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016).
Australia has a long history of immigrants and refugees coming to the country. It was sought
more prominently at the international arena significantly after the World War II that the country
needs immigrants to support the population growth (Panayi, 2016). They by doing this had
presented a very adorable and a transparent picture of the global world. However, the fact is
quite different. Most of the refugees that had entered Australia were being sent to Manus Island
where they had no opportunities to avail. Moreover, an exit from the island was also very
difficult. On the other hand, the Australian government has kept on showing that refugees were
being sent to Manus Island for processing. They will be sent to city areas once they are processed

5THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB
with the Australian guidelines. However, Manus Island was more a detention centre. It was in the
year 2016 when refugee’s movement to Manus Island was being declared as illegal (Panayi,
2016).
Racism has a historical background as explained in the aforesaid section. It still persists
at the different institutions like the workplace. Immigrant workers are not treated the same way
as the indigenous people. Racism is there at the time of recruitment process. It really hampers the
performance and adds worries to immigrant employees. Mental health of such employees may
get influenced which is one of the reasons for job dissatisfaction in Australia (Kowal, 2015).
Australian employee is being reported to as developing the mental health issues due to work
pressure, job insecurity, workplace environment and others. Such factors are becoming the
reasons for incrementing absenteeism, suicidal cases, recession and many (Kowal, 2015).
Racism is another factor that put a negative impact on the brain. Those who are at up front and
escalate any first-hand racism to the respective body at the workplace, they are less likely to
develop the mental health issues. However, those who do not dare to disclose their first-hand
experience to the respective body, they are more certain to develop the mental health-related
challenges (Kowal, 2015).
In the movie also, Nino did hard work to not only survive in the country but, also prove
his stand to Harry who had hatred feelings for Italians. Nino had worked harder to get things
going. Nino during his workdays had noticed quite a few things like labours were being put to
hard work. Due to the work pressure, some labours were probably being accustomed to the
mental health issues. As a consequence, few labours were being shown as falling sick. Nino
himself fought hard to get to the destination. After a lot of struggles, Nino cold manage to buy a

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land, so that, he could marry Kelly. However, that was not enough an effort for Harry who had
played the role of Kelly’s father in the movie (YouTube, 2018).
The number of immigrants is also growing. They have been migrating to Australia for
various purposes like education, jobs and visits. Racism looks as being rooted in both the schools
and the workplaces. Visitors also face the racial treatments. Celebrities are not an exception.
Even the sportspersons face such behaviours. It has been in past; it still exists. They face such
treatments from the opposition players and most importantly, from the audience. The Australian
audience is probably not like the ones in England. English audience gives respect to others as
well. They respect the game but, not the other thing. However, in Australia, it appears as if the
indigenous people or the home team should only get the appreciation. They less appreciate and
more criticise (Davies & Dunbar, 2015).
Therefore, the movie has revealed some very good facts regarding the country Australia.
The immigration experience may or may not be true as now the immigration policies are very
strict and also that Manus Island has been confirmed as illegal in 2016 by the Australian
government. However, racial activities which have largely been displayed in the movie do exist
in Australia. The educational centres such as the schools are influenced by racist activities.
Immigrant students are mainly affected. It may be harmful to their existing and the higher studies
also. The administration policies are there but, have not been able so far to reduce the racial
incidents. The Australia workplace is also surrounded by racist activities. It has probably one of
the reasons for incrementing absenteeism from the workplace and the attrition. Employees are
getting accustomed to mental illness. No significant transition can be observed in the plot which
is being created in the movie “They’re a Weird Mob” and Australia in the 21st century. The
government has shown some urgency to it as it is evident in its move to declare Manus Island as

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illegal and also the practice of anti-discrimination policy. However, things appear like not in the
control of the Australian government.

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References:
ABC News. (2018). Australia is still fighting racism and it's time we faced up to it. [online]
Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-27/australias-race-relations-will-be-
examined-by-un-in-geneva/9198272 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].
Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2016). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian
identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784-807.
Davies, C., & Dunbar, N. (2015). Internal Policing of the Enduring Issue of Racism in
Professional Team Sports. U. Notre Dame Austl. L. Rev., 17, 59.
Fan, Y., Guthrie, A., & Levinson, D. (2016). Waiting time perceptions at transit stops and
stations: Effects of basic amenities, gender, and security. Transportation Research Part
A: Policy and Practice, 88, 251-264.
Forrest, J., Elias, A., & Paradies, Y. (2016). Perspectives on the geography of intolerance: Racist
attitudes and experience of racism in Melbourne, Australia. Geoforum, 70, 51-59.
Forrest, J., Lean, G., & Dunn, K. (2016). Challenging racism through schools: teacher attitudes
to cultural diversity and multicultural education in Sydney, Australia. Race Ethnicity and
Education, 19(3), 618-638.
Kowal, E. (2015). Time, indigeneity and white anti‐racism in Australia. The Australian Journal
of Anthropology, 26(1), 94-111.
Lentin, A. (2016). Racism in public or public racism: doing anti-racism in ‘post-
racial’times. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(1), 33-48.

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Panayi, P. (Ed.). (2016). Minorities in wartime: national and racial groupings in Europe, North
America and Australia during the two World Wars. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Williams, A. (2016). Developing strategies for the modern international airport: East Asia and
beyond. Routledge.
YouTube. (2018). They're A Weird Mob. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=BDvMY1cE5q4 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].