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Late last month, I took part in Vindaloo Against Violence – a wonderful new initiative and the brainchild of Melbourne resident, Mia Northrop.

Vindaloo Against Violence, held on Wednesday 24 February, saw thousands of Victorians eating out at their local Indian restaurants and demonstrating their support for our much loved Indian community.

The message Victorians sent that day was unequivocal: that we do not tolerate racism or racial violence in Victoria, and that we value the contribution our Indian community makes to our state. 

I was lucky enough to share lunch that day with several of our Indian international students at one of Melbourne's many fine Indian restaurants.  We spoke about their about their families and friends back home, and their experience in Melbourne as international students.

Speaking of the experiences of international students, the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria (FIAV) recently released the results of an independent survey which examined issues of concern to students already studying in Victoria.
Of the 513 respondents, 76 per cent were happy with their course, and 72 per cent felt safe in the areas where they work and study. 

Despite this positive result, incidents of assault on Indian students in Melbourne are of great concern to me, especially those incidents with racist elements to them.

Such acts of racism begin and end with a small number of bigoted, narrow-minded idiots.

It is not part of our State – as evidenced by the thousands of Victorians who marched through city streets at the Harmony Walk last year and who participated in Vindaloo against Violence.

We have worked hard to bring down the crime rate in our State – and Victoria is Australia’s safest state. But the rate of assaults is still too high and we will continue to act on assaults – whatever their motivation.

That’s why, last year, I funded an additional 120 more police on the beat – on top of the 350 we are delivering during this term.

The Chief Commissioner has said those police will focus on crime hot-spots, and we are providing them with additional powers to search for weapons, move people on from trouble spots and fine people on the spot for disorderly conduct.

Sentencing laws have been amended so that judges can take into account hatred for, or prejudice against, a particular group when sentencing offenders. The Police Indian Western Reference Group has been established to identify implement and monitor strategies to engage police and Indian communities to reduce the risk of crime.
We have also established a 24 hour International Student Care Service, an International Student Welcome Booth at Melbourne airport and boosted funding for the Indian International Student Advisory Service.

Any attack in our community is an attack upon us all. An attack motivated by race or prejudice is particularly disgraceful.
The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have been as one on this issue.

The message from me, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, and Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, has been consistent and clear: racism will not be tolerated, violence will not be tolerated, and any incident will be thoroughly investigated.

Victoria’s cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths.

Victorians are committed to tolerance and to accepting people from all over the world, and we will continue to send out the message that the actions of an ignorant few will not be allowed to undermine Melbourne’s reputation as a peaceful and friendly city.