Victorians are more likely than other Australians to believe the recent attacks on Indians students are not racially motivated, says a survey. According to UMR Research polling, while 48 per cent nationally said the students were not being targeted on racial grounds, in Victoria this applied to 54 per cent.

Just over a third of Victorians (36 per cent) thought the attacks racially based, in UMR Research polling. This was almost the same as the national average. Australians are more likely to see race as the main reason for the attacks than they were in June last year - 35 per cent compared with 27 per cent.

The national poll of 1000, done this month, found more than nine in 10 people were aware of the attacks, with 97 per cent of those questioned in Victoria knowing about them. Two Indian taxi drivers in Ballarat were involved in incidents late last week - one was assaulted and the other threatened with a knife.

John Utting, managing director of UMR, one of Australasia's leading commercial and political research companies, was quoted by The Age newspaper. "Australians and in particular Victorians are acutely aware of the recent attacks on Indians. Australia is one of the most pluralistic and tolerant countries on earth and indeed when compared with most other countries on rates of crime, Australia scores very well. "What a lot of research demonstrates is that perceptions of rates of crime in Australia far outstrip actual rates of crime," he said.