inspired by this news story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7420907.stm

Every so often an article like this comes up in relation to Australia and, given the seemingly widespread degradation of the native culture, it appears to me that there is a lot of racist views held against non-white people.

Does anyone know if this is a more widespread problem than in England, for example, and if it's part of the 'island' mentality that I think spurs on a lot of xenophobes in this country?