The federal government won't say where 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees have been resettled in Australia, despite local governments warning their municipalities are at risk of being overburdened by new arrivals.
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Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs Zed Seselja said on Tuesday Australia was doing "more than our bit" in resettling vulnerable people but exact location figures would not be released on where new arrivals had settled.
The comments follow criticism from the mayor of Fairfield in south-west Sydney, Frank Carbone, who said more infrastructure funding and assistance for resettled refugees who are unable to work was needed.
Senator Seselja said Australia should be very proud of its record in accepting an increasing number of humanitarian visa arrivals, including the 12,000 persecuted minorities from Syria and Iraq, and spending more than $1 billion on settlement services over five years.
"I think we should be very proud of what we've done in reaching out to one of the conflict zones in the world where there are many people who are doing it very, very tough and we are doing I think more than our bit in taking some of the most desperate people from around the world," he told ABC radio.
"In general terms, when it comes to the 12,000, we don't specifically release the exact numbers that go to each location and there's a number of reasons for that. People can, over time, track generally where the movements are.
"Many of these people are sponsored... by particular communities. Those communities will therefore share a lot of the burden in terms of costs, in getting them here and the like, so in those cases they will most often settle where their sponsors are."
Senator Seselja said those sponsored by the government were mostly being settled in regional locations outside major cities, including Toowoomba, Geelong and Hobart.
"We do all we can to try and provide the services in regional locations but in the end we can tell people that they can't move to Sydney or can't move to Melbourne or other areas," he said.
He said the government would continue to work with Fairfield City Council and other local governments and service providers.
"Where an area does get larger numbers coming in, they also get a larger amount of funding because the funding follows the clients.
"In our settlement services, if there's an area that is getting more than their share, they'll also get more than their share of funding and support services to assist with dealing with those."
The commitment to take 12,000 extra people was made by former prime minister Tony Abbott. The last of the group is settling in Australia this month.
Next year Australia's humanitarian intake of refugees will grow to more than 18,000.
Last week the federal government announced a new humanitarian settlement policy which it said would improve case management and provide individualised, needs-based support as well as improve English language, education and employment outcomes for new Australian arrivals.
