'Racist' Australia compared to Apartheid South Africa by UN Human Rights commissioner

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The United Nations' top human rights watchdog has attacked Australia's tough refugee policies and the treatment of outback Aborigines, saying there was a strong undercurrent of racism in the country.

According to UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, long-standing policies of locking up asylum seekers had 'cast a shadow over Australia's human rights record', and appeared to be completely arbitrary.

'I come from South Africa and lived under this, and am every way attuned to seeing racial discrimination,' she said.

The 69-year-old is a former anti-apartheid campaigner and international criminal court judge, and she was speaking to reporters at the end of a six-day visit.

'There is a racial discriminatory element here which I see as rather inhumane treatment of people, judged by their differences, racial, colour or religions,' she said yesterday.

It places controls on welfare spending for Aborigines to help fight alcohol and child sex abuse in remote outback areas.

'In my discussions with Aboriginal people, I could sense the deep hurt and pain that they have suffered because of government policies that are imposed on them,' she said.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 per cent of the population.

They suffer higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence than other Australians, as well as having a 17-year gap in life expectancy.

WHY HAS AUSTRALIA BEEN LABELLED RACIST?
A tough approach to immigration is not the sole reason why Australia has been deemed racist by the UN.

The belief that the country is 'unusually racist' goes back to the late 1700s when European settlers forced the indigenous population into neighbouring territories.

From 1869 until the 1970s the idea was further compounded when Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, dubbed The Stolen Generations, were taken away from their families by the state.

From 1901 to 1973 the White Australia policy restricted 'non-white' immigration into the country.

More recently, in the late 1990s, politician Pauline Hanson courted controversy by saying that 'a multicultural country can never be a strong country'.

She also complained that Australia was in danger of being 'swamped by Asians', and that immigrants 'have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate'.

The racially motivated 2005 Cronulla riots saw 5,000 people protesting against alleged assaults by groups of Middle Eastern looking youths from the suburbs of South Western Sydney.

And in 2009 Indian students held mass protests against what they claimed were a series racist attacks.

Read more: UN brands Australia 'racist' and compares it to Apartheid South Africa for tough immigration policy