UN says racism entrenched in Australia

September 23rd, 2009 MELBOURNE - Indian Australian Sabrina Houssami has said that racism is alive and kicking in Australia. Houssami, who is also of Lebanese Muslim heritage and a former Miss World Australia, uses the soap box to make her point about an issue that she detests.

August 13th, 2009 BRISBANE - An Indian Australian developer has accused Queensland authorities of indulging in "clear cut racism" with regard to a move to change the name of a street from "Punjab Place" to "Oak Tree Place" Developer Manjit Bopirai said he was responsible for the sub-division at Boronia Heights, in Logan south of Brisbane in 2005, and the street was named at his request. Bopirai told The Courier-Mail he would fight to retain the name Punjab Place.

July 14th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - A delegation of officials from Australia is visiting Punjab to meet parents and educational consultants and reassure them that Indian students in Australia, bulk of whom come from the state, are safe there. The delegation arrived here even as the number of enquiries for courses in Australian institutions went up by four times this year, members of the visiting delegation said.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S.M Krishna has said that India has sought an explanation from Australia over attacks on its students there. Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, the Minister said, "We are in close touch with the High Commissioner and we are also in close touch with our High Commission there in Australia.

June 14th, 2009 MELBOURNE - With attacks on Indian students continuing in Australia, Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma believes there is a case to give a racist tag to them. Calma admitted that racism existed in Australia, but said the whole country should not be blamed for it.

June 14th, 2009 Melbourne, June 14 (ANI): While the attacks on the Indian students continue unabated in Australia, some Indians believe that the sporadic attack incidents have nothing to do with racism. Former Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal, who himself was brutally smashed last year, said that the attacks were not related to issues of racism, but were actually 'street violence.' "I don't believe Australia is more racist than any other country and calling something a racial attack doesn't disguise the fact that all these things are wrong," The Age quoted Haikerwal, as saying.

June 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - In yet another attack on Indians in Australia, a 22-year-old student was allegedly assaulted by a teenager in Adelaide's busy Rundle Mall. According to the police, the attack took place on Thursday.

June 4th, 2009 CANBERRA - China has joined India in asking Australia to provide improved protection for foreign students after a series of violent racist assaults on Indian students Down Under. "There are over 130,000 Chinese students in Australia.

June 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Indian nationals living in Australia have expressed deep concern over the manner in which the Indian media has covered the recent Australian assaults on students and many consider this reporting "irresponsible" This comes as the Indian media is doing exclusive coverage of the Australian attacks and has been extensively rebuking the country for being a racist. "There is a problem with Indian media and Indian leadership - they can't assess a situation in a rational way.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - On social networking sites, Indian students across the globe have been expressing their anger and condemnation of the racist attacks on Indians studying in Australia. Students overseas have launched an online protest in the wake of the attacks through social networking sites Facebook and Orkut.

June 2nd, 2009 TORONTO - The recent attacks on Indian students have been overblown as racist, says the papa of the Indian student community in Australia. Eighty-two-year-old Gurcharn Sidhu, who in 1951 was one of independent India's first students to come here under the Colombo Plan, says these attacks are not "overly blatant acts of racism" by Australians.

June 1st, 2009 Most Indian homes in Australia have had this phone call from concerned family in India by now. "Are you alright? What are they doing to you guys over there?" It's almost as if Australian gangs are roaming the trains seeking out Indians to bash up, or roaming the streets seeking out Indian homes to throw petrol bombs into.

May 31st, 2009 MELBOURNE - Amid racial attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia's first Asian-born cabinet minister believes racism in the country is confined to a minority of people with extreme views. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has previously recounted her "pretty difficult" childhood experiencing racist abuse while growing up in Adelaide.

May 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Sol Trujillo, former boss of telecommunications company Telstra, has said that being in Australia was like "stepping back in time" as it was a racist country. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, after a four-year stint as Telstra CEO which earnt him about 31 million dollars, Trujillo has been quick to pour scorn on the Rudd Government since leaving Australia 10 days ago.

January 18th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Racism returned to haunt cricket when a member of the crowd was charged with abusing South African pacer Morne Morkel during the second One-dayer against Australia at Hobart Sunday. A Cricket Australia (CA) spokesman said a person in the crowd allegedly racially abused Morkel during the Australian innings.