Two Liberal MPs have clashed over Peter Dutton's comments about Lebanese Muslim migrants to Australia, days after the Immigration Minister criticised the refugee policies of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser.
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And while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull praised his minister's performance, he dodged questions about debate in Tuesday's partyroom and stopped short of endorsing Mr Dutton's suggestion last week that Mr Fraser's policies were partly to blame for Australia's struggle with foreign fighters travelling to international conflict zones.
On Monday, Mr Dutton doubled down on those comments during question time when pressed by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on "which group of people, from which country, does the Minister believe should not have been allowed into Australia"?
Mr Dutton replied: "The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third-generation Lebanese-Muslim background."
"I am not going to allow people who are hard-working, who have done the right thing by this country, who have contributed, who have worked hard and who have educated their children to be defined by those people who are doing the wrong thing."
The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that Mr Dutton was doing a great job as minister, lashed Labor for its policy failures when last in government and said the ALP was "envious" of the minister's record.
"There is no question that there are lessons to be learned from previous immigration policies and the minister was reflecting on, you know, on policies many years ago. He's entitled to do that," Mr Turnbull said.
"I'm not making any comment on his remarks other than to say that it's fairly fair for all of us to reflect on past policies and how effective they were, or not, and seek to improve, in the light of that, to improve what we're doing now."
In Tuesday's Coalition Party room meeting, North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman – without naming Mr Dutton – said the recent commentary about Muslim immigration had been "unhelpful".
The moderate Liberal MP spoke out because he was worried about mixed messaging from the Coalition, MPs in the closed door meeting told Fairfax Media, at a time that the Liberal Party was doing its best to reach out to migrants communities including Lebanese, Chinese and Indian Australians.
The Lebanese Muslim Association of Australia was furious with Mr Dutton's comments last week, describing them as implicit racial vilification of migrant communities.
Mr Zimmerman stressed that in NSW, where up to 40 per cent of people are from a non-English speaking background, the government needed to be careful not to "undo" all the good work that had been done with migrant communities.
Several MPs said the comments had been widely interpreted as a "hit" on Mr Dutton but that "it didn't work".
Mr Zimmerman's comments prompted a swift response from the only Liberal MP with a Lebanese background, Victorian Michael Sukkar.
Mr Sukkar, who has a Maronite Catholic background, and is prominent member of the Coalition conservative faction, strongly backed Mr Dutton's comments in question time.
The Member for Deakin pointed out that people of Lebanese descent were a relatively small percentage of the population but made up 66 per cent of people who had been recently charged with terrorism offences.
"Sukkar smashed Zimmerman on this," another MP said, adding that the North Sydney MP had "completely misread the mood of the party room".
There was also heated discussion over the government's handling of environmental water flows in the Murray Darling Basin.
South Australian MP Tony Pasin complained to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce that the government had mishandled the issue and needed to do better by South Australia.
Lebanese Muslim Association president Samier Dandan said Mr Dutton was guilty of exploiting bigotry for political gain.
"His comments reflect on a government unable to embrace multiculturalism and Indigenous rights, instead revealing its toxic assimilationist, nationalist agenda," Mr Dandan said in a statement.
"Let us not beat around the bush here: what Mr Dutton said was racist, what he implied was racist and the lack of outrage in Parliament reflects on the racism underscoring much of how we talk about minorities in Australia.
"We are sick and tired of having every element of our lives dissected and questioned and we refuse to continue doing so at Dutton's behest."
