The story the media will never tell
There is an undercurrent of well-educated, moderate views in Australia, giving rise to a relatively functional and lawful society. As in many societies, these views form the central portion of a bell curve which at its extremities contains some less educated views, including some that are racially prejudiced.
Australia is a multicultural society and for the most part, those cultures are well integrated. In the year 2000, Australia had the fifth highest number of new citizenships per capita in the world1. Currently the population includes something like 20% first or second generation migrants, because for the last few decades our industries have employed more workers than we can breed. With this level of immigration, cultural integration (the incredibly enriching process that involves learning a great deal of interesting facts about your new neighbours and their way of life) is not something we have to strive for. It's a given.
The recent violence at Cronulla (and elsewhere) represents nothing more than the misguided actions of small minorities that for some reason have chosen not to participate in the above process - whichever direction that journey might have taken them.
The police seem to have the situation under control.
Hopefully tomorrow there will be no news.
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1 http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/imm_new_cit_cap
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Mardy: In defence of John Howard, he never said the lynch mob wasn't racist. he said Australians aren't racist. He was talking about the majority, and he's right - most of us aren't. He did refer to the lynch mob specifically as lawbreakers, which is also correct. I think your lesson for Howard should read: expect the media to distort everything you say to maximise the chance of it spawning more drama.