The Australian Greens have described as “despicable” a suggestion that Australia needs to have a serious discussion about the growth of its Muslim population.
At least one Liberal frontbencher has distanced the party from the views of the last immigration minister in the previous Howard government, Kevin Andrews.
Mr Andrews says the issue of a growing Muslim population is a topic that has to be discussed.
“To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,” the Liberal backbencher told Macquarie Radio Network today.
“You should be able to talk about it ... it’s ridiculous if you can’t talk about any subject,” he said.
“When a subject becomes politically incorrect to talk about, then it ends up with a backlash.
“I think part of the (Pauline) Hanson movement in the early 1990s was because some subjects were simply said to be off the table, they couldn’t be discussed and a lot of Australians wanted to discuss them.
“Whether they were right or wrong is not the point. In a democracy you should be able to discuss them.”
Greens leader Bob Brown says the comments reflect the racist political agenda of Ms Hanson, the former One Nation MP.
"(It’s) a pretty despicable comment,” he told reporters in Canberra. “We are seeing a far right, pretty disgusting point of view.”
Opposition frontbencher Greg Hunt distanced himself from Mr Andrews’ comments when quizzed by reporters in Canberra.
“Our approach should be colour-blind, ethnicity-blind, background-blind and simply focused on their ability to contribute,” he said.
“I believe in a diverse and multicultural Australia.”
There was a 70 per cent increase in the number of Australians of Islamic faith between 1996 and 2006 - during the Howard government’s term in office - census data shows.
The latest census data shows that in 2006 about two in three Australians identified themselves as Christian.
The most popular non-Christian religion was Buddhism (2.1 per cent or 418,757), followed by Islam (1.7 per cent or 340,390), Hinduism (0.7 per cent or 148,127) and Judaism (0.4 per cent or 88,826).