Dutton of refugee — Security is priority

“Close our borders we have enough anarchists already resident in Australia …we do not need any more coming in disguised as refugees”.

“The national security agencies and the police are very alert to ensure there isn’t any copycat behaviour in Australia”, he said.

“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”. “They are our fellow citizens and they are our necessary partners in combating this menace”.

Attorney-General George Brandis rejected Mr Fraser’s call, saying the “worst thing we could do is to alienate the Muslim community”.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the National Party member said that Australia would be best served not to take any “Middle Eastern refugees or Islamic boat people”.

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.

Mr Dutton says Australia will only deal with applications from refugees where they can guarantee their identity’.

The federal government is reassuring Australians that Syrian refugees will face stringent security checks before coming here.

“I think this just demonstrates why we do need a tough border setting but at the same time we can bring in people such as the Syrians who are fleeing a murderous regime”, he said.

Mr Dutton said on Monday “we aren’t going to rush” the processing of 12,000 refugees affected by conflict in Syria and Iraq because the government would not compromise on security checks of the incoming refugees.

Dutton implied that the prime minister might soon consider changes to his status on cabinet’s national security committee, pointing to Turnbull’s statement in September that the arrangements would be monitored. “No doubt it will be considered in the coming days and weeks”. He confirmed he had attended at least one meeting since Turnbull became prime minister, to give an update on Operation Sovereign Borders.

Screen shot of MP Andrew Fraser’s Facebook post, where he made the call for the ban.