ABOVE: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks to 3AW's Neil Mitchell about his nephew, Van Thanh Rudd.

While the PM makes it clear he is not a fan of his nephew's views he stresses that free speech is welcome in Australia and you 'can choose your friends but ... '.

Meanwhile, Van Rudd has defended his decision to use an image of Shane Warne and depict the cricketer cheering on the death of an Australian soldier.

Van Rudd says he feels he's entitled to use Warne's image.

Listen to Van Rudd below.

LISTEN TO THE PM'S INTERVIEW:

• Rudd on Australian workers' rights
• Rudd takes calls: 'You've lost me'
• Rudd on the global climate
• PM's nephew Van Rudd speaks out
• Smell the cheese, Prime Minister?

AUSTRALIA DAY, 2010:

The Prime Minister's nephew, artist-activist Van Rudd, has been removed from Melbourne Park by police after an anti-racism protest.

Dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, Van Rudd and Sam King, from the Revolutionary Socialist Party staged a quiet protest outside Rod Laver Arena as the quarter-final match between Belgian Justine Henin and Russian Nadia Petrova began.

The protest came after eight men were arrested overnight over the bashing of two Indian students. The attackers allegedly made racist comments before kicking and punching the Indians.

Bearing banners with the words "Let the refugees in" and "no racist attacks on Indians", Rudd and King refused to move from the lawn outside the arena, saying they were protesting because the Australian Government refused to acknowledge that attacks on Indians were racist and that locking up asylum seekers was wrong. Their protest came on what the group branded "Australia Day/Invasion Day".

After the pair refused repeated police requests to leave, a police car eventually arrived.

"I'm not surprised, but at least we got the point across," said Mr Rudd as he was being bundled into the back of the police car ten minutes after the protest began. "The Australian Government has to act to save innocent Indians and Tamils."

Another member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, who was filming the event, said Mr Rudd and Mr King called him a short time after being removed by the police, to say officers had let them out at Exhibition Street. Police can move on people who are found to have breached the peace during a special event.

The protest failed to attract public attention, with tennis fans largely ignoring the pair as they entered Melbourne Park.

Earlier, Van Rudd said the Australian Government had participated in racism.

"In this country, you could not get away with locking up more than one thousand innocent whites, but that is exactly what is happening to Tamil and Afghani refugees. It's racism pure and simple.'

He said Australia was funding the Sri Lankan regime that Tamil refugees were fleeing.

He said Indians in Australia were 2.5 times more likely to be attacked than other ethnic groups and it was time for the Government to condemn the attacks as racist.

The protest came as eight men were arrested over a racial attack on two Indian students in the city overnight.

"There were allegations racial comments were made," said Leading Senior Constable Kendra Jackson.

Police said one of the victims, 18, was then pushed to the ground and kicked at about 10.20 pm last night in Swanston Street. He will have microsurgery at St Vincent's Hospital today after his ear was cut with an edged weapon. .

A 22-year-old Indian was also punched to the ground and suffered minor abrasions to the forearm.

After the attack, the offenders, described as being of Asian appearance, fled.

Several hours later police in the city arrested eight men. They released four after questioning while the other four remain in custody.

The victims, both Indian students, do not wish to be identified.

Van Rudd, the son of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's older brother Malcolm and Vietnamese mother Tuoi Rudd, is no stranger to controversy.

In May 2008, the Melbourne City Council banned a painting by Van Rudd because it feared it would be sued by McDonald's. The painting, entered in an exhibition by young Vietnamese artist portraying modern life in Ho Chi Minh City, showed a Ronald McDonald carrying an Olympic torch as he ran by a self-immolating monk and

In March last year, an artwork by the self-proclaimed artist-activist attacking Melbourne's previous rail operator Connex for suppressing Palestinians and installed beneath Flinders Street Station was covered up following complaints before being declared fit to be seen on the grounds of freedom of speech.

The installation attacked Connex's parent company Veolia for supporting "illegal operations on occupied Palestinian territory' by building a light rail through disputed land in East Jerusalem.

And in June, Van Rudd signed a petition calling on Deputy Prime Minster Julia Gillard to cancel her visit to Israel due to the country's poor human rights record.