Canberra: A city-wide crime survey has found that over 55 per cent of Victorians believe that violence was racially motivated in Australia, adding that a series of attacks on Indian students has created diplomatic tensions.
According to The Age, some universities have labelled the assaults a key factor in falling numbers of international students studying in Victoria.
More than 6,500 Victorians responded to the survey, which failed the John Brumby government on law and order just three weeks from the state election.
The survey also found that one in two Melburnians do not feel safe in their street at night, adding that 89 per cent of Victorians feel unsafe on public transport at night.
Asked to score 'state government initiatives to uphold law and order', just over four in 10 of the survey respondents answered 'disappointing' - the lowest rating on the scale, the paper said.
Among the findings, were
50 per cent of Melbornians do not feel safe in their local street at night
89 per cent do not feel safe using public transport at night
88 per cent do not feel safe in the CBD at night
14 per cent have considered moving because of a crime
36 per cent have experienced a crime at home
55 per cent said violence is racially motivated
42 per cent were disappointed with the government''s initiatives on law and order.
Asked whether his government was on top of law and order issues, Brumby said that Labor was turning around alcohol-fuelled violence with extra police and tougher search powers.
"You can employ more police, you can give them tougher powers you can drive crime down," the paper quoted him, as saying yesterday.
But Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu accused the government of playing with Coalition policies on crime, saying violent assaults had increased in recent years, it added.