“Australia Is Full”: An Indian Man Has Been Targeted With A Racist, Anti-Immigration Flyer
"This kind of racist intimidation must be rejected and condemned."
A racist flyer claiming “Australia is full” was discovered by a Melbourne man earlier this week when he returned to his car after he finished buying groceries from a local shopping centre.
The man, who is of Indian background, found the flyer attached to his car after returning from the local Woolworths in Moorabbin, a suburb in south-east Melbourne. The flyer read: “Asians out, Indians out, Australia is full!”.
The victim of the racist incident didn’t want to speak directly to the media because he was worried about being identified and further targeted, however a friend of his confirmed the incident occurred on Monday evening.
When asked if she believed the man was deliberately targeted because of his race the friend, who only wished to be identified by her first name, Jasmine, said: “Yes of course. He’s Indian”.
“I was outraged,” Jasmine told Junkee. “I love Australia… and fortunately I have not been a victim of direct racial slurs.”
“This person [the victim] is a law abiding, tax paying, true citizen. What has skin colour to do with anything? Didn’t the Aussies come as immigrants and convicts? Bigotry is cowardice.”
Moorabbin is a culturally diverse suburb located in Melbourne’s south-east. Nearly half the residents of the suburb have both parents born overseas, according to the most recent census. Four percent of the suburb’s residents were born in China, twice the national average, and 3.7 percent were born in India — again, twice the national average.
The Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane, told Junkee that: “This kind of racist intimidation must be rejected and condemned. It mustn’t be allowed to become part of what is deemed normal or acceptable.”
“The tone of public debates has a powerful effect in signalling what is and isn’t acceptable,” he said. “When public figures endorse prejudice and intolerance, it can embolden a minority of our society to vent their bigotry.”