Rising violence, dubious education institutions tarnish Melbourne's multi-cultural image. The safety of Indian students and corrupt practices by private colleges is expected to figure prominently during the official visits of Victoria’s Premier John Brumby and his Minister of Skills and Workforce Participation, Jacinta Allan, both of whom will separately arrive in India this week on official visits that will last more than a week each.
At stake is the image of Victoria and its capital, Melbourne, which accounts for over 50 per cent of Indian student population in Australia.
The ‘charm offensive’ by the Victorian Premier and his senior minister is taking place in the backdrop of two major developments — a series of incidents of random violence in this city which has witnessed brutal attacks on locals and ethnic Indians alike and the damage done to the education sector in Australia by the exposure of sub-standard, questionable private education institutions.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship for the first time officially admitted on Friday that Indian student visa applications have begun declining. The extent of the impact on Australia’s A$ 15-billion education industry can well be imagined.
Earlier this month a third private training college shut down. This is the third private college to shut down in as many months in Victoria. These sudden closures have affected 472 students, many of them from overseas. Although the latest vocational college to close down on September 2 did not have any foreign student, it does, however, call into question the competence of Victoria’s regulatory authorities, which, over the years, has deregulated private vocational education.
Adding to the uncertainty of Indian students is the fact that the Victorian government is currently ‘fast auditing’ 41 colleges it considers ‘high risk’, some of which are in danger of being shut down that in turn will lead to dislocation of hundreds of students.
On September 12, Melbourne’s ‘multi-cultural’ image suffered a set back with a brutal racist attack on four ethnic Punjabi Indians, two of whom are Australian citizens, by at least four Caucasian males who were encouraged by a jeering mob watching from the sidelines. The fact that the Victorian police chose to allegedly suppress this incident by not revealing details until four days later did not help the image of both the police and the state government that Brumby heads.
Although the police denied that it deliberately suppressed the incident, public perception indicates otherwise. A public survey carried out last Thursday by “The Age”, a prominent Australian newspaper, revealed that 67 per cent of the respondents felt the police had chosen to deliberately suppress the incident.
An added controversy has been the unsympathetic treatment accorded by Northern Hospital, a public hospital in Epping, where one of the four victims, 26 years-old Sukhdeep Singh, was admitted with extensive facial injuries including a fractured jaw. The matter was swiftly resolved following the timely intervention by the Indian Consul General, Anita Nayar, in Melbourne after she contacted the relevant authorities.
In 2008-2009, Victorian police crime statistics revealed that of 181 homicides (including manslaughter), more than half (94) occurred on lanes and footpaths.
While Brumby will travel to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore during his nine-day trip from September 22 to October 1, Allan will visit Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore during her 11-day visit from September 24 to October 5 during which they will confer with key state ministers and captains of Indian industry.
