ABS figures for Australian residents have 8% of 0-14 year olds born overseas, 30% of 15-64 yos and 36% of 65+, for an overall average of 26%.

I have not been able to quickly obtain the figure for 18-25 year olds, but from the above trend, they are likely to be less than the 26% average, but let's take it to be 26%.

That leaves 74% born in Australia.

The report claims those who have been in Australia less than 5 years are six times as likely to report racist incidents, and second or third generation four times more. So lets say the average of all those born overseas is 5 times more likely - in between the rates for recent arrivals and those born in Australia with parents or grandparents who were born overseas.

Thus even if ALL overseas-born reported racist incidents, a maximum of one-fifth of "other young people" (presumably referring to the Australian born) did, and the four-fiths who did not report a racist incident account for 74*0.8=59% of the relevant population of 18-25 year olds, leaving 41% who did report a racist incident.

Yet the report claims that "more than 70 per cent of young people experience some form of racism", very much at odds with 41%, even allowing for my assumptions.

Then the author claims "Over 50 per cent of Anglo-Australian young people, for example, experienced some form of racism". I was going to do the maths on that, but decided to do something more useful.

The figures seem to me "Lies, damned lies, and statistics", and as "bitey" wrote "what exactly is a "racist incident" as defined for the purposes of the Deakin survey?". I'm a fourth-generation Australian-born Caucasian who has been called "f'ing nigga" by Aborigines swilling alcohol on a suburban train. I guess that was a "racist incident", eh bitey?

Whilst I can relate to the points made by Curmudgeon, I think that the huge increase in news coverage and portable media devices helps highlight everything that goes on within our society. It seems that everyone has a mobile phone with a camera and every incident is captured, no matter how trivial of our of context it might be. We certainly see a lot more than we ever used to. Is it a good thing that we see every little event? Was a level of ignorance actually bliss? Do we really have a problem with racism or is it simply more exposed than ever before.
I think a balanced outcome of racial tolerance whilst maintaining our National identity would be a wonderful outcome; but the path to that Nervana is more difficult to navigate I fear.

What a pile of twaddle some of you people talk.

My son suffered a racist attack recently in Sydney. He's forth generation & quite light skinned.

He had a bunch of 4 "Leb" thugs stop a car beside him, as he was walking home, in broad daylight, from the train. They jumped out & started laying into him.

We don't know if they meant to rob him, as fortunately a couple of cars stopped, & the thugs shot through before they could do so. Not unfortunately, before they had cracked his skull in 4 places.

Unfortunately there was little blood, as the doctor who saw him gave him a sedative, & 2 days off. He doesn't say much, but after a couple of operations, he still hurts.

As far as I'm concerned we were no where near racist enough in the last 30 years, but don't worry, we will make up for it. We have imported more racism in those last 30 years than ever existed before in our entire history.

Unfortunately it is the ordinary folk who are reaping what the do-gooder elite sowed.

Racism increasing in modern Australia.
The title of this article is misleading. It implies Australians are racist although the author (academic obviously) does mention europeans as being targeted also.
The title should be more to the point by stating an increase in imported racism.

Funny thing how the people who write stuff like this, all live in the "White Ghettos" of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Sydney's inner west has less non-anglo people than any other part of Sydney. It is Sydney's white ghetto. It's even whiter than the leafy north-shore line that these people despise.

People like the author of this article support immigration, but pay to live in an expensive suburb without migrants. To me, that sounds deeply hypocritical.

If the politically correct crowd actually lived in an 'ethnically diverse' suburb (and with the collapse of social capital that always follows migrant influxes), they'd soon change their tune.

(PS I don't know where this particular author lives, but what I write is true in general)

2011, my dear Mr Walsh, marked the beginning of where the cultural and racial division being imported into Australia by people like your good self, began to reach critical mass, and the much predicted signs of social strain began to manifest themselves.

Multiculturalism is exactly like Socialism, how many times does it need to fail before the Lucas Walsh clones of this world finally figure out that it is not a good idea?

Human being just happen to be tribal and territorial. It is a cultural universal that people prefer to live among those that they consider their kith and kin, and with whom they feel safe with. The validation for this premise can be seen in the largely monocultural ghettoes dividing our suburbs. Human being do not, never have, nor never will, unconditionally accept people from other races and cultures as their brothers and sisters, especially if those people adhere to a culture which the majority consider to be threatening or offensive.

And people who’s culture is diametrically opposed in values, attitudes and behaviours to a majority culture will naturally clan together within a geographical area to reinforce their own belief system, a belief system which others may find objectionable.

And so begins the Balkanisation and social disintergration of a country. The idea that there is strength in diversity is a contradiction in terms. What binds any peaceful community together is a feeling of shared values and a general agreement as to what constitutes acceptable behaviour.

The mass importation of ethnic groups who have exhibited appalling levels of violent criminal behaviour, hostility to the host countries population, and high levels of welfare dependency was never going to promote anti racism. However, a much more discriminating immigration policy may have dampened racism down a bit.