[etfb]

Lovely place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here -- especially if you're not white and anglophone. We (speaking as an Aussie here!) used to be a lot friendlier, but the last dozen years have seen a serious degradation. It's not the friendly place it used to be.

[matt_trentini]

I've lived in Australia all my life and can't say I share the same opinion. Racism, while clearly present (notably in some parts of QLD and generally outside of the "urban core" as Tloewald succinctly described), is pretty mild from what I've seen. And, in my experience, it's become less of a problem over the past couple of decades. I remember many more reports of race-related violence when I was young.

And within the major cities (especially Sydney and Melbourne) it's a remarkably tolerant environment especially considering the diversity of cultures. I'm often amazed looking around at people in the streets and see so many countries represented!

Then perhaps I'm biased. I'm a white male born and raised in Melbourne which is probably the most cosmopolitan city in Australia.

[I agree about the cost of living though; housing in particular is exorbitant!]

[lazyeye]

Thats sounds like a pretty broad generalisation. Can you elaborate on what you mean.

[westicle]

This pretty much sums it up:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/21/melbourne-racis...

There are some disgusting people here, I'd like to think they are the minority.

[etfb]

Tloewald has the gist of it (see his comment at this level) though I think the racism is mainly toward our own aboriginals. The response to asylum seekers is more complex than "just" racism. Still stupid though.

[Tloewald]

The anti refugee stuff is getting pretty extreme, and Australia, especially outside of urban core, has always had a broad undercurrent of racism.

[wyclif]

Yes! Details, please. I'd love to visit Australia and NZ, have been all over Europe, US, Canada, Israel, South America, and SE Asia.