Jeff - in answer to you last question ("If others are entitled to their cultural differences that are an affront to me, am I not entitled to mine that may be an affront to them?") ~ yes, you are entitled to yours. Those of white anglo saxon lineage seem to be obliged to accommodate the sensitivities of every culture and race, but are treated like they themselves have none and are entitled to none. It's not surprising that Italian women (or those with Italian sounding names) are not discriminated against ~ let's face it, the Italian community in Australia is very highly regarded and deeply respected, as is the Greek community. People from these countries (and others) came to Australia in substantial numbers in the midddle of last century, made Australia their new home, retained their own culture, heritage, and traditions, whilst respectfully becoming part of the broader Australian community (and working their guts out to build a future). The key word is respect. Some other cultures have not achieved the level of acceptance and equity simply because they themselves are seen as having little respect. [Note ~ this may be a problem of perception, but perception = reality in the modern world. Nobody has time to delve into the facts and work out what's really true any more. We use rules of thumb]. People from various countries who could be referred to as Middle Eastern have had one real shocker of a poster child in recent years : Bilal Skaf. Similarly, young white Anglo Saxons have had that idiot Corey Worthington to thank for them being generally branded as irresponsible, bludging morons. Like it or not, that's reality. Unfortunately the PC brigade force employers (in particular) to become very clinincal when hiring and firing. For example, if a disgruntled candidate called me after failing to get a job (or an interview), my lawyer advised me to simply say "other candidates better satisfied the selection crieria". End of conversation. No room for real honesty or constructive feedback, in the interests of self preservation. Which is a shame, because 95% of applicants really need serious assistance, including graduates from any background, who do not seem to be able to read or write well, and cannot communicate easily with others.

Its more of the stereotipes we all have in our minds of these type of people. Such as, rightly or wrongly, Asians would be more likely to get a call back for an IT job than a sales job, middle eastern would be more likely get a call back to a sales type job than an IT job. Simply put, stereotipically, Asians are smart, middle eastern and European /Mediteranian were smoother salespeople. I think there are too many variables in the test done to say Australians are racist. Sure, most of us do have ideas on different races like i have stated above. I don't believe its racist, just promoting the better qualities of each race.

Virtually all aboriginals I know have Anglo-Saxon sounding names. What names did this "economic professor" use?

There could be a statistical question mark here : do we know how the unwitting respondents interpreted the names / ethnicity? Did they all assume the surname 'Puruntatameri' was Aboriginal? Probably not......

You've got me thinking Jeff. I have had a bit of trouble getting interviews at the fertiliser factory in the 7 years to 2008 but responses are getting better lately.

"So i tucked my hair up under my hat, and walked on inside. The owner said, you look like a fine upstanding young man i think you will do. So took off my hat and said imagine that Me working for You!" Are you old enough Jeff? I think this problem has been around for some time.

intersting topic JC. We are all certainly entitled to think what we want, or what our instincts and experiences dictate, but it's our behaviour that is legislated. Is it then our instinct to modify our behaviour to be within the bounds of the law, but still not be seen necessarily as "fair"? The whole point of experience is to learn from it, and if we don't moderate our behaviour based on what we have learned then perhaps we've really not learned at all.

What was the ethnicity of those answering the job applications?

Jeff i recently read about your great aboriginal aunt(?) Mary-Ann Bugg .Dealing with the public was difficult for her due to her race and cultural differences. She was a great swimmer though often swimming from Balmain to Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour to visit her imprisioned partner Captain Thunderbolt, Fred Ward.The waters at the time were heavily populated with sharks encouraged by offal feeding. The story went on to speak of her descendants , didn't have too much to say about the Corbetts.

Workplace harmony is very important. People prefer to work with their own kind, just as they prefer to live amongst their own kind. I bet an Australian would not fit into an Indian call centre environment.