Former prime minister Tony Abbott says the rate of immigration in Australia needs to be scaled back but the government is "pro-immigrant".
Mr Abbott spoke with his former chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin, on her Sky News program about the matter on Thursday night.
"At the moment there is an argument for scaling back the rate of immigration, which is at unprecedented high levels, until out infrastructure can catch up, our housing can catch up and, yes quite possibly in some instances, until our integration can catch up," the Liberal backbencher said.
When asked by Ms Credlin if he would be bringing up this issue with senior ministers, Mr Abbott replied: "It's something I have been talking about one way or another for some time now.
"If you look at the Howard government in the first few years he halved immigration.
"When my government came into office we reduced immigration from about 300,000-a-year to under 200,000-a-year.
"My understanding is that it's creeping up to 250,000-a-year.
"I think we need to scale it back not because we're anti-immigrant, we're pro-immigrant, but the immigration program has to be run in the interests of everyone, specifically for the people who are already here."
Mr Abbott's comments come as cabinet documents obtained by the ABC showed former immigration minister Scott Morrison requested ASIO in 2013 to delay security checks so asylum seekers would miss a deadline to obtain permanent protection visas.
It is unclear whether ASIO complied with the written request.
But Mr Morrison said in a statement on Tuesday, "As minister for Immigration and Border Protection, it was my policy and practice to put Australia's national security interests first."
The prime minister backed up his cabinet colleague, saying Mr Morrison had "stopped the boats".
"We make no apologies for sending the clearest message to the people smugglers and to their would-be customers: 'If you think you can come to Australia on a people smuggler's boat, you're wrong. You won't. You won't get here, you will not become a permanent resident'," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.
"Keeping our borders secure is a critical obligation and responsibility of government."
- with AAP
