As an investor I've obviously got vested interests with immigration since it puts upward pressure on prices. That said of course there's racism in Australia but it's very small on the world scale and nothing compared to the xenophobia displayed in countries, such as Japan and China.
People like hanging out with people who have similiar interests to them. The majority of my friends are all whites and islanders since I grew up playing rugby.
There's also socio-economics to it as well. Stats show that people that grow up in outer suburbs and lower socio-economic areas are more 'racist', which is understandable. Firstly it's because they actually live in the areas where a lot of ethnics live (so they get more exposure to the culture etc.). Plus there's obviously going to be resentment and financial jealousy towards ethnic groups who work in professional jobs with higher salaries etc.
Lean also demonstrated the point as she was unemployed and resented the fact that foreigners had jobs and she didn't even though she was born here etc.
E.g I've been at auctions where I've seen couples shake their heads and mutter 'fkn asians' because they've been priced out of the market. Same as a lot of Indonesians don't like Chinese people since they tend to be the rich people in Indonesia.