RIOTS DOMINATE AS SYDNEY HEADS INTO FESTIVE SEASON

By Greg Tourelle of NZPA

Sydney, Dec 16 NZPA - What a crazy week across the ditch.

Bradley Murdoch was found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, perhaps ending Australia's biggest outback mystery since baby Azaria Chamberlain was or was not taken by a dingo at Uluru in 1980.

The Australian media did a superb job of ignoring New Zealand's brilliant one-day cricket win over Ricky Ponting's side.

Treasurer Peter Costello unveiled a budget surplus of $A11.5 billion ($NZ12.50 billion), sparking a row over tax reform, and Coopers brewery won its latest battle to stave off the raid by Lion Nathan.

But overwhelming all was the race riots in the southern Sydney, which dominated headlines -- and not just in Australia.

They have been a nasty blot on Australia's reputation -- and often its boast -- of being a tolerant society.

Cronulla beach and surrounding suburbs became a battleground between young Lebanese youths and locals -- white Australians -- who claim the beach as their own.

Historical police arrest statistics would indicate few problems at the beach, but people in the Sutherland Shire are emphatic that gangs of Lebanese youths have been harassing locals, particularly young women, with taunts about rape for some years.

When two lifeguards were allegedly assaulted the weekend before, revenge was soon on the mind of the locals.

What happened was ugly in the extreme. People of Middle Eastern appearance on the beach were attacked by a gang of about 1000 locals, many of them drunk and chanting racist slogans.

Then there were revenge attacks in surrounding suburbs, as young Muslims went on the rampage smashing people, cars and property in their wake.

Prime Minister John Howard denounced the attacks but said he thought there was no "underlying racism" in Australia.

There were bitter arguments over this and other possible causes of the riots, and much handwringing over whether multicultural policies were working.

As usual in the Australian media, the left and right wing commentators clashed.

Amanda Wise, from Macquarie University's Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, blamed the riots on "John Howard dog-whistling on immigration".

She also criticised former New South Wales premier Bob Carr for "singling out the ethnicity of rapists", referring to some prominent gangrape trials going back five years.

Prominent talkback host Alan Jones, the former Australian rugby coach, was criticised for encouraging a rally by locals. "Alan Jones' week of ranting wog-baiting which preceded the Sydney riots was...vulgar, vicious and racist, and unmistakeable incitement to violence," wrote a talkback host rival, Mike Carlton, on the Crikey website.

In the Daily Telegraph, right-wing columnist Piers Akerman said the attack on the lifeguards was the trigger for Sunday's riots, "but the tangled roots of anger lie deep within the failed multicultural policies foisted on an unsuspecting nation decades back.

"Though sold with the help of such anodyne ditties as I Am, You Are, We Are Australian, it has long been apparent many people from certain migrant groups -- notably Lebanese Muslims -- neither think of themselves as Aussies nor wish to embrace the extraordinary tolerance identified as a remarkable Australian trait."

In Britain, famed Australian feminist writer Germaine Greer called the "can Australia really be racist?" approach of the British media to the rioting as gratuitous and silly.

"Australia is as racist as Britain, no more, no less," she wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

"Australian racism derives from the same bottomless source as British racism -- from universal ignorance and working-class frustration, reinforced by an unshakeable conviction of British superiority over all other nations on earth, especially the swarthy ones."

In The Independent, prominent Australian expatriate Philip Knightley said the riots had revealed that "the lucky country's historic racism lingers on, like a sun cancer, just below the skin".

"Those Australians who are proud of their multicultural, "fair go" society -- and I believe they are still a big majority -- now need to recognise that a nasty side to their fellow citizens is still there and fight to preserve the new Australia they thought they had already built."

Police Commissioner Ken Moroney made a special plea, given the time of year. "The spirit of Christmas has simply disappeared out of this city and it is up to all of us, not only the police, but people of goodwill, to bring the spirit of Christmas back."

Hopefully, even non-Christmas observing Muslims will take up the message, but it's going to be a nervous festive season in the deep south of Sydney.