Asking his country to confront racism, Australia's former Defence Force chief has stated that the attacks against Indians was a major problem and its nature made it easy to conclude they were racially motivated.

General Peter Cosgrove told The Age after his address on Australia Day that the number of incidents against Indians seemed "too many to be coincidences". "Attacks recently by groups of people on individuals looks like a profiling approach to people from the sub-continent." "Rather than say nothing to worry about, I'd rather look more closely. If you didn't suspect a racial strand you'd be mad," he said.