Brisbane: A teenager and a 20-year-old man have been charged over the robbery and assault of an Indian national while he was using a telephone box in south Brisbane, the AAP reports.
The report further says: “The 25-year-old man was using a telephone box in Macgregor, in Brisbane’s south, at 10.40pm (AEST) on Thursday when he was allegedly set upon and punched to the side of the head and robbed of his wallet and cigarettes.Police have charged two people with actual violence while in company over the incident.”
“In a separate incident, an Indian taxi driver was attacked about 2.40am (AEST) on Friday after an argument broke out with two men in Carindale, in Brisbane’s southeast.The men punched the driver in the face several times and smashed the car’s windscreen.Two men have been charged over that incident and are due to face court again in March,” it said.

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An Australian working in India has been charged with attempted murder after using an air rifle to shoot a man urinating in the street.
The Australian man, who Indian media named as Levin Jestin, had been drinking with friends on his balcony when he saw the man urinate outside his apartment, reports ABC.

ABC quotes Indian media reports as saying that the 30-year-old engineer from Queensland became enraged and shot at the man with an air rifle, hitting him in the arm.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have confirmed that a 30-year-old Australian has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
Source: ABC

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Canberra: Australia’s unemployment rate fell unexpectedly in November, as the country’s economic recovery continued.
The jobless rate dropped to 5.7% last month, from 5.8% in October, as 30,800 new full-time jobs were created, said the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The figure surprised analysts, who had been expecting the unemployment rate to increase in November to 5.9%.
The latest figures raise the prospect that Australia will increase interest rates again.
Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates to 3.75% from 3.5% – the third month in succession that it had increased the price of borrowing.
- BBC, 10 Dec. 2009

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Dozens of men at the Christmas Island detention centre have been injured during a riot between Afghan and Sri Lankan detainees, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The brawl broke out between about 150 men at the centre on Saturday (Nov. 21) night. Staff at the centre brought the riot under control within 30 minutes. Thirty-seven detainees received medical treatment on the island, while a further 10 were treated in hospital.
It is understood broken pool cues, tree branches and broom handles were used as weapons, reports ABC.
The matter is being investigated.

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By our community reporter

Melbourne: The Australian Parliament has passed new citizenship laws recently. The main points are as follows:
1. Exemptions from citizenship test for people with a permanent or enduring physical mental incapacity.
2. A citizenship course for those who have difficulty passing the citizenship test.
3. Children under 18 cannot apply for citizenship unless they are permanent residents.
4. Two special resident requirements people who are not able to meet general residence requirements for citizenship.
5. New citizenship test will assess the understanding of Australian civics and the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship rather than a general knowledge test about Australia.
6. A resource book on the citizenship test with (a) testable part and (b) non-testable part.

For full details of the new citizenship laws check – www.citizenship.gov.au

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Amnesty International has slammed former Prime Minister John Howard’s criticism of the idea of a bill of rights for Australia. At a Menzies series lecture at the University of Western Australia last night, Mr Howard dismissed a rights charter as a comprehensively bad plan, reports the ABC.
Victoria and the ACT have already adopted their own human rights charter, but Mr Howard said MPs should not hand their decision-making powers to “unelected judges accountable to no-one”.
According to the report, Amnesty’s human rights act campaign coordinator Jenny Leong says the group is surprised by the amount of “fear-mongering” on the issue, and says the former PM has it all wrong.
“We need to remember that it was under the Howard government that so many of the human rights of this country and our reputation internationally for respecting human rights were eroded,” she told ABC News Online.
Source: ABC

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Clash of a different kind: Vic.Police – Indian students play a cricket match

By our community reporter

Melbourne: Victorian police cops and Indian students ‘clashed’ in a cricket match here on Friday (19 June) in a lane of the Central Business District (CBD). The match is being seen as a step towards easing the tension after many attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney.
Welcoming the cricket match Amit Menghani, President of the Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA) said: “It is wonderful to see such a positive initiative from the cricket community and the Victorian Police,” he said. “Recent weeks have been extremely tough so it’s most heartening to see cricket helping reinforce the need for mutual understanding and respect.”
Victorian and Australian cricketer Brad Hodge, who joined the teams of mixed players, said he found the rules in his first game of laneway cricket a bit different to what he was used to. Multicultural liaison officers from Melbourne metro police stations were glad for the chance to spend the afternoon playing cricket and getting to know the students.

Leading Senior Constable Craig Spicer from Maribyrnong’s multicultural liaison unit said it was great to play socially with the students and build relations.

“The police here are genuine sportsmen so it’s been great to interact with the students on common ground.”

The match was part of Cricket Victoria’s Harmony in Cricket program, which has involved social matches between international youth and students and Victoria Police.

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New research by Australian National University showing that Australian employers are racist is disappointing, but hardly surprising.
The ANU study, reported in The Age newspaper on 18 June, supported the findings of Harnessing Diversity: addressing racial and religious discrimination in employment, the report published last year by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human

Rights Commission and the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
Independent research quoted in Harnessing Diversitydetailed racist attitudes, racial discrimination and harassment in workplaces experienced by people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The study showed that when job applicants changed their names on their resumes from Arabic-sounding to more Anglo-sounding names, they suddenly experienced much more success in gaining interviews.

“The Commission made a number of practical recommendations in the Harnessing Diversity report to change workplace racism, and is actively working with government and industry to make this happen,” said Dr Helen Szoke, Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

“Victoria’s anti-discrimination legislation and government policies are excellent signposts. But for many migrants, the land of the fair go will remain an illusion until everyone – including employers – see human rights and anti-discrimination as realities not remote concepts,” she said.

Dr Szoke said that most of the complaints of discrimination handled by the Commission are in the area of employment, and many of those complaints involve disability, sex, race or age.

“We encourage people who feel they are being treated unjustly to contact the Commission, which is easily accessible through our telephone line and interpreter services. This is especially relevant to people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who are more likely to experience discrimination based on race,” she said.

Contact the Victorian Human Rights Commission Advice Line on (03) 9281 7100 or visit: www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au

- Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission eUpdate, 19 June

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By our community reporter

Melbourne: An Indian overseas student from Chandigarh was badly bashed in a train here on Saturday evening (9 May) by six persons, becoming another one to a growing list of Indian victims of violence.
Sourabh Sharma, 21, who is a hospitality student was confronted by six persons in a train near Leverton, on his way to home Warribee. They asked him for cigrattees and money and when he said he had none, punched and kicked him in front of many passengers.
Talking to South Asia Times on phone Sourabh said, “They harrassed and kicked me badly on my face. Took all my stuff like wallet, mobile phone, bag, watch and documents.”
” Someone pressed the trains emergency button but the train did not stop. I got down at Warribee and was talken by para medics to the Warribee Mercy Hospital where many tests were conducted on me and found a fracture on the cheek”, Sourabh said.
The attack comes in the wake of growing number of similar attacks on Indian and South Asian overseas students in the Western suburbs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Melbourne, Australia: Three people died in an explosion in an asylum boat which was being escorted to Christmas Island. ABC reports that around 43 people (suspected to be Afghans) have been injured in the blast.

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