Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says a Labor MP who has received death threats in the wake of his comments about migrants should look to her own leader for answers.
Labor MP and counter-terrorism expert Anny Aly, who was born in Egypt, says she's received threatening emails since Mr Dutton told parliament two-thirds of people recently charged with terrorism offences were of Muslim-Lebanese descent.
"The question she should be asking is of Bill Shorten, why did he seek to whip this up into an issue of political advantage for himself? Why did he seek to misrepresent my words?" Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
BACKGROUND STORIES
Dutton risks jeopardising the fight against terrorism: Labor
Mr Dutton, when answering questions about Sudanese migrants last week, blamed Fraser government immigration policies for problems such as radicalisation and gang violence 30 years on.
He doubled down in parliament this week, saying that 22 of the 33 people most recently charged with terrorism offences were from "second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds".
"I'm not going to step back from this," Mr Dutton said on Thursday, insisting he wanted an honest discussion and that his words had been factual.
"I'm not going to be intimidated or misrepresented by somebody like Bill Shorten."
Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim said the advice the minister had about the background of people facing charges was undoubtedly correct.
"But just because something is fact doesn't mean that it's reasonable or productive to talk about it," he told Sky News, accusing the minister of harming national security interests.
"What we've got is a deliberate attack from Mr Dutton by quoting these numbers on a particular subsection of the Australian community, in this case Lebanese Muslim-Australians."
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