Liberal MP Philip Ruddick says care needs to be taken in resettling 12,000 refugees from the Middle East, to avoid 'ghettoisation' in Australia.
Mr Ruddick made the comments after it was announced that the majority of refugees allowed in to Australia under the federal government's one-off quota will be placed in Sydney and Melbourne.
"Sometimes you need to think about where communities already exist because they can be very important in supporting those who are coming," Mr Ruddock said.
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"You need to look at the way in which you can apply adequate settlement services where they are, you need to look at where the support organisations are.
"Those are factors that are going to be taken into account. I don't think it's desirable to have people ghettoing, if I can use that term, so distribution of populations is important."
Government representatives met with community leaders on Thursday to discuss resettlements.
Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told the ABC that the relevant groups would need to work together to execute the resettlements in a short time period.
"Whilst we've got a very well-oiled machine in terms of the logistics, the meeting is really important because of the goodwill that's been expressed," she said.
"Because we're seeking to do this in a relatively short period of time, we need to work with community groups, we need to work with other organisations in terms of some of those logistics."
Sydney to accept 'more than fair share'
The NSW government is yet to confirm how many refugees the state will take in, although Premier Mike Baird has indicated he is ready to accept "more than our fair share".
"It is too early for us to be determining the number of Syrian refugees to be accepted by NSW," a spokesman for the premier said on Thursday.
"Peter Shergold begins his role as the NSW co-ordinator-general for refugee resettlement next week and we will have more to say on this matter in due course."
Mr Baird said on Monday the state would look at ways to settle refugees around regional NSW, though he has not indicated what proportion of the total intake those measures would be aimed at.
- With AAP
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