Australia tolerant of cultural differences: study

Updated on: Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A recent Australian survey has revealed that Australians are mostly tolerant of cultural difference with the state of New South Wales ranking poorly as compared to other states.

The Challenging Racism project surveyed more than 12,500 people over the past decade and the results were released today.
Overall, the study found that almost 90 per cent of respondents supported cultural diversity and nearly 80 per cent felt comfortable around people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The findings stated that NSW when compared with other states stood poor and some pockets, such as Strathfield, suffer relatively high rates of racism, according to 'The Sydney Morning Herald'.

The study was conducted by University of Western Sydney and the lead researcher Kevin Dunn said the results were promising but contradictory

It reported that NSW had the highest levels of anti-Muslim attitudes at 54.4 per cent.

However, anti-Muslim sentiment proved widespread in every state and territory, while Victoria recorded one of the lowest levels of anti-Muslim sentiment (42.8 per cent, third lowest after Tasmania and the ACT, at 41 per cent.)

While over 86 per cent Australians agreed "a society made up of different cultures" was a good thing, the findings reveal mixed messages on multiculturalism - four out of 10 Australians have misgivings about racial and cultural minorities "fitting in" to society.

The survey also recorded high levels of perceived racial discrimination in the workplace, the housing market, and in verbal abuse - most often in areas with many ethnic groups.

Dunn, said "My gut feeling is that [the NSW data] would still be higher than in other jurisdictions."

Dunn said that NSW's higher than average levels of antipathy towards Asians and Aboriginals as well as Muslims "reflects the nature of the cultural debate in this state - I consider the quality of the general debate and the political debate to be of a lower standard than in other jurisdictions".

Victoria and Tasmania present as more racially tolerant than NSW, Queensland, West Australia and the Northern Territory, but still report widespread racial unease.

More than one in 10 of those polled identified themselves as "prejudiced against other cultures".

The rest may not be racist but 41.4 per cent of Australians believe that Muslims, Aboriginals, Asians or Jews "don't fit into Australian society".

Broken down by cultural groups, 48.6 per cent of those polled reported anti-Muslim sentiment, while more than one in four - 27.9 per cent - expressed anti-Aboriginal sentiments, 23.8 per cent had anti-Asian attitudes, and 23.3 per cent expressed anti-Semitic views.

Anti-British, Italian and Christian sentiments are recorded across Australia at less than 10 per cent, the report said.

The Victorian survey in 2006-07, overseen by University of Melbourne's department of population health, did not measure racial violence, but senior research fellow Yin
Paradies said "Violence is the tip of the iceberg, we're looking at the rest of the iceberg.

Racism isn't just redneck bigots who are trying to create problems for particular groups, it's â€¦ 'I'm not comfortable with these people', it's a lower level, and it's very
prevalent."

Unlike the rest of the states, the Victorian poll did not test racist attitudes towards the African community - "an oversight", Dr Paradies said.

Australia tolerant of cultural differences: study

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