Security is priority: Dutton of refugee

Both Mr Dutton and Senator Payne used interviews on Monday to stress that Australia was in a different situation to Europe with regards to refugees.

“But at the moment the advice from our agencies is things haven’t fundamentally changed even though we were starting from a relatively low base in terms of the security situation with the threat level being high”.

Australia’s immigration minister has rejected a call by an MP to close its borders to refugees from the Middle East, in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Coalition whip Ewen Jones argued against calls to close Australia’s borders and criticised attacks on Australian Muslims from right-wing commentators such as Pauline Hanson.

At least 15 people have been linked to the terrorist attacks, but only one – which unconfirmed reports said was Ahmad Almohammad – was believed to have entered France as a “refugee”.

“We are talking about people who are fleeing from the Assad regime or fleeing from Isis themselves”, he told 2UE on Monday.

“There may be a few inconvenience as we go about our daily lives, but that shouldn’t stop us going about it, and know full well that our police are doing everything they can in their powers to keep us safe”, he added.

“Under no circumstances are we going to rush the process or com-promise the security of our country”, he said. “No doubt it will be considered in the coming days and weeks”.

Dutton cautiously endorsed comments made by the Tasmanian Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic in the Australian newspaper for the immigration and border protection minister’s status to be upgraded to permanent membership.

But the extremists behind the attacks, and other acts of terror, “are only Islamic by name”, he said.

Australia is preparing to accept 12,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

“Thank God the Australian government under my leadership and subsequently has put strong border protection policies in place, we have put strong national security policies in place and we are playing a significant part in the global campaign to disrupt and destroy this death cult, this Islamic State caliphate”, Abbott said.

“It’s like we are drowning in a sea of hate and every time we get our heads above water, something else happens to pull us down”, he told AAP.