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ShareWe have brought together a whole group of people into the Indian reference group. It involves the (Indian) consul-general, the universities, other representatives of student bodies, multicultural groups working to find more broadly based solutions. Because there is a whole range of issues here as well. It's partly about the educational standards and the promises made to Indian students before they come.
There are very reputable educational institutions in Australia, but there are some private institutions that aren't as reputable as we'd like and are, perhaps, misrepresenting the situation to Indian students. So (the students) are disappointed when they come here, they are not quite getting the employment opportunities they wanted. They often find themselves in situations where they are being exploited, so they aren't being paid enough or they are forced to work long hours, they have been forced to live in substandard housing, and that's not okay. There are issues around permanent residence, there are issues around what support they have while they are here -- for instance, access to public transport. My understanding is that international students don't get discounts on access to public transport in the way the other students do. So there is a whole series of issues.
Security is one of them, and it's important. But my sense from talking to Indian students is that there is a lot of dissatisfaction on a whole range of other issues. They need to be addressed -- because we are encouraging students to come here and study and we need to make sure they are looked after properly when they are here.
Were the events of the past fortnight a wake-up call for the Victoria Police?
We didn't need to wake up. We were the first ones to recognise that this was a problem, and we have done all this work. One of the things that surprised me most is that some of the people who have criticised us most are the people who have been working with us and who understand exactly what we have been doing, and what we have been trying to do.
Do you mean the student community?
Yes. I don't quite understand why the criticism has come when they know everything that has been done. There is always a lag around putting measures in place and achieving the outcomes you want to achieve. It takes time. I've been frustrated because I don't think there has been a proper acknowledgement of all the work that has been done or is being done. Yes, we need to do more and we are doing more. So this wasn't a wake-up call. We already knew this was a problem, about two years ago.
Even as of last week, some Indian students I spoke to have been carrying pepper spray and chilli powder in self-defence. Isn't that a loss of confidence in the police force?
It is, and we are very concerned. But some of the lack of confidence is not well founded. Some of it is actually because of misinformation or lack of understanding of everything that has been done and is continuing to be done. What it says to me is that we need to work harder to make sure that the student body understands everything we have been doing, to reassure them that they are welcome here, we take their safety seriously. That's the challenge for us.
The additional measures we have been talking about are really across the state. Because the problem is not just in the suburbs. Work is being done in those other areas. Now, we have provided some whole-of-state coordination; it was an initiative that was tending to be done in their respective areas, but we have now provided some coordination to that. We'll now provide additional resources to deal with this particular issue.
One of your officers said earlier this year that one of the reasons why Indian students were vulnerable to attacks was that they "talked loudly in their native language". I've spoken to Australian academics, sociologists, and community leaders, and they say such a characterisation is dangerous and amounts to blaming the victim. Is that view widely shared in the force?
No. We have got 14,000 staff. Sometimes people say things. I think we need to be very careful, and I've tried to be very careful, around this whole issue of race. Australia is a very diverse community, we have a multicultural approach, which is about being open and inclusive and welcoming to people from all over the world who come here to live and work and study, and even visit. And I think we have been really successful in managing some of the tensions that come with that. But you need to recognise that there are challenges that come with that.
But I think blaming the victim by saying it's the victim's fault is not helpful. What we need to say is: there are issues there that we need to work with the community. It's a two-way process: it's about having the community understand, and about us understanding the community. And work together so that we get the outcome we want. Sometimes it might be about a change of behaviour. But it might sometimes be about saying, 'If you can, don't go by yourself. Don't overtly display your valuables, if you can avoid it. Keep them hidden away.'
But that's general advice we would give to everyone, not just to Indian students. There are lots of vulnerable people who could find themselves in a situation where they might be attacked. That sort of crime prevention work is something we do all the time, not specifically to Indian students.
