The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has admitted a discussion took place in shadow cabinet in 2010 about community fears about Muslims, but said his contribution was intended to “lower the fears about Islam and not elevate them”.

In a wide-ranging interview with Waleed Aly on the Channel Ten program The Project, Morrison refused to answer repeated questions about whether he would insist that One Nation be put last on how-to-vote cards, while declaring his track record was to bring communities together.

Morrison was also pressed on whether the Liberal party had a problem with Islamophobia, and on his “Trumpian” language in relation to asylum seekers. The prime minister declined to answer repeated questions about how many rapists and murderers were in offshore detention, saying only it was “more than one”, and he rounded on his host, advising him not to “sugar coat” issues.

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The prime minister sought to address a news report from 2011 that while shadow immigration minister, he urged the shadow cabinet to capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns about “Muslim immigration”, “Muslims in Australia” and the “inability” of Muslim migrants to integrate.

The report in the Sydney Morning Herald was subsequently confirmed by other journalists but this week Morrison labelled the account “a disgraceful smear”.

Morrison acknowledged on Thursday night that a discussion occurred but said his contribution was about lowering community fears, not stoking them.

“I was the shadow immigration minister at the time and I was very concerned about these issues and the way people were feeling in the community,” he said. “I was concerned that we needed to address them, which is what I have been doing inside and outside of the parliament for the last 10 years of my life.”

Pressed further on what he was addressing, Morrison said he had observed concern over Islam existed and he wanted to “lower” the temperature.

“I was acknowledging that there were these fears in the community and we had to address them, not exploit them,” he said. “Actually seek to try and address them.”

Morrison could not explain why Julie Bishop, who chaired the meeting, ended it by reiterating the Liberal party had a non-discriminatory immigration policy, and it needed to stay that way.

“That has always been my view,” Morrison said. “I have championed that view, as a minister, as a member of parliament for my entire public life ... I think we have responsibilities, as you were just asking me to do, that where we are concerned that people have fears about these things, that we would seek to alleviate those fears.

“What I am saying is I was concerned about those fears in the community, and it has always been my practise, as I have demonstrated to you outside the parliament and inside the parliament, to seek to address those.”

Asked who was lying about his contribution to the meeting, Morrison said it could only be “anyone who may have talked to a journalist to smear me in that way”.

“It never happened,” Morrison said. “I have always been deeply concerned about attitudes towards people of Muslim faith in our community. I entered the parliament after one of the most horrible scenes that we have seen on our own soil [the Cronulla riots] on this issue and set about immediately trying to bring communities together. And I have always acted consistently with that, in shadow cabinet, in the cabinet, by the policy decisions as ministers and in my own personal conduct. And so, such a report is so at odds with my experience and actions that I think that speaks for itself.”

Citing his work within his local community, acting as a bridge between migrant communities, Morrison said his actions stood as his record, but refused to say whether or not he believed One Nation candidates deserved to sit lower than Greens or Labor MPs on any Liberal how-to-vote card.

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has previously described Islam as a “disease” Australia had to “vaccinate against” but Morrison, who has previously intervened with local branch preselections, said any decision on where the far-right party would sit on the ticket was “made by the party organisation”.

After ruling out making preference deals, an issue that was not raised by Aly, Morrison said the party would “make these decisions at the time nominations close and then we will apply those decisions at that time, as a party organisation”.

“I said we are going to make that decision at the time of nomination,” he said, when asked what he personally thought. “You’ll know at that time … and I’ll be consulting with my own party organisation, I won’t be doing it through your program.”

Asked why it was a “difficult” question to answer, Morrison said he was from a party with “a process, and that party listens to a lot of people in its organisation who are members of our party, and that is a decision, which is actually taken, in each state and territory division of the Liberal party … and that is respecting our process.”

Aly presented Morrison with statements and actions of Coalition MPs, including George Christensen’s attendance at far-right rallies, Peter Dutton’s comments on Lebanese Muslim migration being a mistake and Tony Abbott’s past assertion that Islamaphobia had never killed anyone, and asked whether his party had an issue with how it treated Muslims.

Morrison rejected that but, when asked later about government rhetoric surrounding the offshore asylum seeker and refugee medical evacuation bill, the prime minister dug in.

“Should we ignore the fact that if there are persons who do have those [criminal] records, or for whom those issues are present, that we should ignore that?” he asked, again asserting the bill, which allows for ministerial discretion in rejecting transfers for security reasons, could potentially see criminals transferred to Australia.

“I’m sorry, but we are the government and we have to implement it. And we know that is exactly what can happen and we can’t resist it.”

But when repeatedly asked how many people were “rapists, murderers and pedophiles” that had been used by the government as examples of why the medevac bill was a “bad” law, Morrison could not say.

“There only needs to be one, that’s my answer,” he said, again asserting the minister would not have the discretion to stop that person’s transfer. “I am sorry, I am the prime minister. I am responsible for implementing it and I have the full availability of the attorney general, the attorney general’s department, the Department of Home Affairs, and their advice to me is no, we don’t have that power. I don’t know whose advice you are relying on but I’m sorry, you don’t know.

“Don’t sugarcoat this stuff, it doesn’t excuse it.”

Asked what needed to happen in future, Morrison listed off what he had done in after the Christchurch attack, and insisted he had called out his political allies when they made xenophobic comments.

“Again, look to the experience I have laid out for you tonight,” he said. “And don’t prejudge me.”