Melbourne:
Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh is set to meet Victoria Premier John Brumby this weekend on the issue of continuing attacks on Indians, days after she told the Australian Governor General that the state's government was "in denial".
Brumby had sought a meeting with Singh following her discussion of the crisis with Governor General Quentin Bryce last week, and the meeting will take place during the weekend.
Singh, who is scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on Saturday to meet the premier, had in her meeting with Bryce last week reportedly applauded the role of police in New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and South Australia, but said Victoria was taking too long to respond and was in a state of "denial" over the severity of attacks.
The move prompted state's premier Brumby to say he wanted to meet her again. Brumby said he would again seek a meeting with her to assure that his government was doing all it could to stop the attacks.
The two had met last month and discussed the same issue. There have been over 100 instances of attacks on Indians, most of them students, in Australia since the last year.
"I'll be able to inform her of all of these things and again to reassure her that Victoria is a much safer place than other places in Australia and indeed around the world," Brumby had said.
During the meeting, Singh had told Bryce that Australia was not racist but warned of long-term consequences unless more action was taken to prevent attacks on Indians, according to
The Age.
The Indian envoy would return to New Delhi next week for talks on Australia's response to the assaults.
The Victoria premier had last week lashed out at the Indian media for blowing up the racism issue and had asked people to wait for facts before crying racism. His comments came after the police charged an Indian for faking an attack to seek insurance benefits.