Yeah right....thats why it was recently announced thats 25% of Aussies are actually born overseas. When you factor in 2nd and 3rd generation there must be only 5-6 million or less like me whose ancestry in this country stems back to the 1860s and beyond...

The problem with arguing whether or not we are generally a racist people/nation is that it is always going to be based on subjective opinion and would be an unending debate that goes around and around without conclusion. It is one of those things that when you are inside or part of something it's very difficult to make an objective assessment of it. You really have to stand on the outside and look back in.
That John Howard doesn't believe there is underlying racism in Australia and that Greg Barns and 75% of Age pollees do believe there is underlying racism really has no bearing on the facts of the matter.
It would be much more interesting and enlightening to find out whether people from other countries around the world view us as racist or not. Or maybe some sort of national Tolerance/Intolerance Survey that gives an unbiased snapshot of Australians feelings about other races and religions. That would be much more telling of how racist or not we are rather than arbitrary opinion polls and debates.

So what many of you are saying is that two wrongs make a right, or that just because there are some other countries more racist than Australia, that we are ok.

Col Rouge, what are you saying? Even if your definition of the word "Kaffir" is correct, are you suggesting that it is not a term of abuse?

Here's a dictionary definition for you:
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Kaf·fir also Kaf·ir
n., pl. Kaffir or -firs also Kafir or -irs.
Offensive.
A Xhosa.
often kaffir Used especially in southern Africa as a disparaging term for a Black person.
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I agree that Mugabe is a disaster - I never suggested he wasn't. As usual you are ranting up the wrong tree.

As for Australia being a great aid donor. Pull the other one. We contribute .25% of GNP to foreign aid! It has fallen in real terms under Howard and is nowhere near the commitment made by Australia in 1970 to commit .7% of GDP to aid. Much of it is 'tied' and so is given to Australian firms as a form of corporate welfare or as a tool of foreign policy, rather than being true aid.

Hmm Shonga - you talk about Aboriginal land and in a way it is in some areas and it WAS in others. No one the world over returns land -only the Australians and New Zealanders. I don't ever expect to get any land back in from the English who stole it from my Cornish and Welsh forbears. I even TRIED to stay in the UK back in 2003 and was kicked out. So I always laugh when i hear people say - "this is aboiginal land - you should go back to England" even though I am edscended from Convict SLAVES and REFUGEES.

I tend to go with Sneek on this one. The country’s attitude towards non-Anglo-Celtic people has sunk under Howard it's not yet anywhere near sty-level. And many of us have become more inward-looking and less adventurous and more narrow-minded, but there are still many amongst us who have not. Sort reminds me of the Australia of my youth in the last years of the Menzies era, when Donald Horne wrote “The Lucky Country” and sparked off a wonderful fire that helped us to grow up fast. We can snap out of the regression of the last few years. Pity about Greg Barnes though. If only he could take a more Hornesque approach...

AMSADL - But COMPARED to other donor countries Australia does well. Of course I hope you start complaining about the 180 or so countries that do less...

As to the author of the article. I think the response we are seeing comfirm this man should not be allowed to post to OLO again. Sure you might say he is offering an opinion. But opinion MUST be based on logic reasoning and not misleading. If I say that clouds are made of sugar when clearly they are not that is not an opinion, that is crap. Is this considered censorship. No because there is no basis on fact or logic reasoning.

So Greg in the words of Gollum, Go AWAY and neVer come back.