Er... did anyone stop to notice that the original attack on the Indian students were perputrated by Ethopians students? Not White AngloSaxon Australians. Strange no one has spoken up about that. Maybe that would be Racist or Politically Incorrect... Don'no? Strange though?

The only ones being TARGETED are the Australian tax payers.

There seems to be feeding frenzy going on:
-- The private colleges are busy enrolling as many as they can squeeze in the door, whether or not they have the proper facilities, and, when the business goes belly up, the college directors walk away having made a motza. The industry insurance scheme supposedly set up to cover such an eventuality, wipes its hands of it,but collects its wages on way out the door. And, the students get reassigned to a new college--at tax payers expense.
--The Lawyers and Immigration agents have been busy supplementing their incomes by peddling English test papers & phoney work certificates –and, ready made excuses for any eventuality.
--The Govt employees’ are boosting their wages selling English Papers and turning a blind eye , and
--The students are lining up in ever increasing numbers to study COOKING & HAIRDRESSING ! so they can qualify for residency.
(every time I hear someone mention that on the list of much needed, essential, locally unsuppliable skills were HAIRDRESSING & COOKING, I fall into a fit of uncontrollable laughter!)

AND, I would suggest,that the efforts to keep the student bashings issue in the public eye is in part, perhaps a large part, designed to play on Australian public opinion and (hopefully) influence visa applications. Who knows, if they can stir the issue enough they many manage to get another Prime Minister to cry , a la J Hawke, and grant blanket residency to all and sundry.

Nazeem,
Good article and it is needed.

The police in both NSW and Victoria seem very reluctant to disclose the ethnicity of the attackers. Police in Vic particularly and i ask why? They must know.

I am upset that, by ommission, they allow all to think the attackers are anglo Aussies, when they may not be. In NSW it is now seemingly accepted that the attackers are mainly Lebs and in Vic there are strong rumours around that the attackers are mainly recent arrivals from Africa.

What about the victims themselves disclosing to all and sundry the ethnicity of their attackers and then we would know for sure.

The whole episode is similar to the situation at Cronulla beach where much anti-social conduct and bashings took place by Lebs and the authorities did nothing, despite complaints over many years. It seems some ethnic groups can get away with anything and have 'cultural privilege'.

Our weak governments seem to have instructed police not to disclose the ethnicity in certain cases, as it may upset certain groups.

Certainly young Indians seem to be the targets, maybe because the attackers think they are easier, but the whole thing needs to be exposed. I think the best source of information is from the victims.

Jayb "the original attack on the Indian students were perputrated by Ethopians students"

Yes maybe we should stop immigration from countries which have demonstrated unacceptable social values, maybe we should also remember the separation of India in 1948 was to stop mass murder between Hindu Indians and Muslim Indians.

Perhaps we should also remember that Indian Tamils have recently failed in their attempts to violently impose their will illegitimate against the Sri Lankan majority in Sri Lanka.

Maybe we could consider the inter-racial violence which exists still within different Indian religions and castes and ponder,

should we tolerate the attempts by Indians to circumvent Australian migration laws by coming to Australia supposedly for an education but with a real plan of never returning to India but "migrating" here instead and import Indian intolerances in to Australia.

Indians are being targeted, not because of their race, but because they are generally exposed - alone or in small groups, in bad areas, late at night. But, loath to pass up a chance to extract any possible advantage from the situation, they accuse Australia of racism in a bid to stir up attention and gain concessions for themselves. They demand special protection - what, a cop assigned to guard every single one of you? Get over yourselves, you're not the only people who get bashed and robbed in this country, and you're no more deserving of protection than anyone else. This whole "education" industry is nothing but a migration racket, and the sooner we shut it down and restore public funding to universities, the better off we'll all be.

Visit any prison in Australia and you will get a fair idea of which groups commit the most violence. Instead our pathetic media would prefer to highlight the injustices of these criminals in prison. I doubt whether any honest study would be aloud as to who commits the most violent crime. The pc media (especially National Broadcasters) will only let you know if its a white male committing the crime.

Runner, you call yourself a christian, yet you post such an appalling antisocial comment without evidence. Your Pastor will not be pleased.

I do hestitate Nazeem, for a number of reasons.

One is that the Indian media (mainly Times of India and TV News) have been hyperventilating the story but much of their copy is being lifted straight from News Ltd or Fairfax. They then add in blog copy as quotes.

I reckon T of I could afford an Indian correspondent, but there is only one freelancer in Australia, who I have met a number of times. She is carrying the whole load.

I don't doubt the assaults took place and that maybe even some of them were racially motivated but that's about as far as it goes.

I'm afraid Australia isn't perfect but we don't burn christians in their cars as we saw in the early 1990s in India (the Stynes), nor do we knock down mosques and erect Hindu shrines on the rubble. And Australians don't run in to tourist hotels and machine gun innocent people.

Nazeem, with great respect I do not believe that racism is behind the stupid mindless attacks in our community. Just look at the case of the Asian man chased in front of a car that killed him - there were Asians in the group involved in that heinous crime. rather, there is a growing culture of violence in Melbourne and the Police hierarchy have yet to address it because they themselves have nothing to fear, nothing to be concerned about. Similarly the politicians on both sides who have not determined to do something about this pathetic situation. As to Indians, I have written two letters to your Australian High Commissioner without response. A couple of weeks or so ago we saw a large citizenship ceremony in my municipality and 3/4 were Indian. They know that we have no objection to anyone accepting to live in peace and harmony with everyone else. I am also a weight lifting referee. A few weeks back I refereed a competition with some Indian athletes, who were as well received as ANY other. And as a Civil Marriage Celebrant it has been my honour and my pleasure to marry some beautiful Indian couples. Racism does exist but that racism does not target Indians per se and it is not in every area, not in every community..

JayB,
Can you provide any evidence to the ethnicity of the attackers that you referred to.

A police report, a victms statement or a link to a newspaper article.

The whole world seems silent on this matter.

I find it fascinating that most commenters thus far completely avoid the central truth of the article - i.e. that Indians are apparently being targeted in violent crimes in Australia at a rate that is disproportionate to their representation in the population.

What is irrelevant to that issue is whether they have been enticed to study dodgy courses in Australia, the ethnicity of their attackers, violence in India, or whether the Indian media have been selling a lot of newspapers by exaggerating the issue.

What *is* relevant is that the crimes are occurring, that Indians in particular are being targeted, and that Australian authorities seem far more interested in covering up that reality than in doing something about it. It's unacceptable that anybody is in danger from the simple fact that they use public transport, and even more so when a particular ethnic minority is targeted.

Australia's international image as being a safe, civilised destination has been tarnished by these crimes, and we will undoubtedly notice the effects in the future loss of export revenue from areas such as education and tourism.

Banjo. I don't have the article now but I think it was Terry Sweetman. It was some time ago.

Thanks Chery, you too notice all the violence is not here in Australia alone, India has it’s fair share. It is not the extremely poor that are doing so, just similar cashed up Indians like we have here studying in our Colleges and Universities. Don’t they learn anything & believe all Australian citizens are like the ‘turn the other cheek Missionaries?’

“Bhubaneswar: The Orissa government has failed to take any action, under the law of the land, against those who committed bestial crimes — the gang rape of a 28-year-old Catholic nun and the brutal attack on a Catholic priest who courageously resisted their attempts to force him to participate in the atrocity.” This less than 12 months ago.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093058040100.htm

Will the taxpayer have to fund a defence course for incoming foreign students as well as make way for them in part time work which they are entitled to under the present system. No wonder some Australians are Angry.. Do the Indian mums & dads back home go around with their heads in the sand or is it clouds believing our Education System can protect their babes here in the real playground.

I have noticed points being raised about

- violence in India (or not)
- dodgy colleges
- problematic migration laws
- the race of the attackers

None of these are relevant to the question at hand, which is whether these local attacks were racially based and what the govt should do to help prevent them.

Yes I think the attacks were most likely racially based. but by Ethiopian/Somalian people verses Indian. See Muslim verses Hindu.

Nothing to do with Australia.

It seems obvious that if we reduce immigration from certain places attacks on all Australians would be reduced. This however would be considered racist especially from those demanding action.

I think CJ has a point –the intent of the article is to spruik the proposition that: “Indians (particularly Indian students) are … being targeted in violent crimes in Australia at a rate that is DISPROPORTIONATE to their representation in the population..”

It’s not meant to be about Indian students behaving badly, it’s meant to be about others behaving badly towards Indian students!

So recent media reports of Indian students being involved in dodgy student visas; dodgy marriage schemes; dodgy business practises , or even, bad behaviour towards fellow Indians who helped expose such behaviour http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25840216-10229,00.html
is not something the article writer would want to encourage –and, I can understand that!

Indeed, looking at the recent media reports one could get the impression that there are DISPROPORTIONATE numbers of Indian students involved in the aforementioned dodgy activities . But conditioned as I have been by decades of political correctness, which has enshrined the principle that profiling and stereotyping is bad --- I would not be so impolite as to suggest it.

It does seem however, that some student spokespersons, and the elements of the media—especially the Indian media, are less reticent about profiling . Since they have very quickly and loudly concluded that students are on the receiving of end of bad behaviour in DISPROPORTIONATE numbers,and judged Australia & Australians, racist http://urdunews.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/crikey-wrap-indian-press-on-australia%E2%80%99s-racism/

Now, I could have missed something – in the frenzied rush of politicians and education industry reps to jet off and suck-up to the “Indian market”– I could well have missed the PROPERLY CONSTITUTED AND CONDUCTED RESEARCH--NOT HEARSAY --BUT PROPER RESEARCH that showed conclusively that there were indeed a DISPROPORTIONATE number of such acts --- If so, I’ll follow the example set by our politicians and kowtow and beg pardon.

Mind you , its not a question of whether or not attacks are occurring , nor, that those that do occur are worthy of sanction, but rather, that the incidence is DISPROPORTIONATE!

Where is the evidence? Or, have some come accept the charge in the spirit of –if you say things often enough, they become a “central truth”?

Regardless of whether these attacks are occurring in disproportionate numbers relative to their representation in the population, what exactly do they expect us to do? The police are out there every day and night catching criminals. They are working to reduce attacks on everybody. What makes these Indians think they are special?

I'm sure if a Western tourist went to India and demanded special police protection on account of his skin colour, our beloved liberal elite would be decrying it as white privilege, neo-colonialism, and stereotyping all Indians as criminals. Sorry guys, but you're not special. Take some commonsense steps to protect yourselves. I do, and I'm not armed or in a gang.