A criminal lawyer who has represented a string of clients charged with terrorism offences says comments the Prime Minister made in Parliament this week could poison a jury against two men accused of planning an attack.

On Thursday Tony Abbott read from a transcript of a video, which was seized when two men were arrested in Sydney earlier this week and charged with plotting an imminent terrorist attack.

A spokesman for Mr Abbott said "the Prime Minister quoted the translation with the prior consent of the Commissioner of the AFP, Andrew Colvin".

Criminal lawyer Adam Houda echoed concerns raised by prominent barrister Robert Richter QC about the possibility that Mr Abbott's comments could prejudice a future trial.

"He wants to milk this situation politically for all it's worth," Mr Houda said.

"And the unfortunate result is that it will also bring unfair prejudice to the matters now before the court and also undermine the court process."

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He said the Prime Minister was setting a bad example.

"He's poisoning the minds of potential jurors out there. We have rules for a reason, to ensure fairness in courts."

President of the New South Wales Bar Association, Jane Needham SC, said public commentary about the case could have serious consequences for the legal process.

"What could happen is that the court could find it impossible to have a jury empanelled who was not affected by the comments," she said.

"And that could mean that the men could not receive a fair trial, because the jury had already made up their minds, or that their trials might be stayed, and that has happened in the past where comments made in Parliament have been the basis of a stay application later."

Ms Needham said police and prosecutors should be allowed to get on with their job.

"Well I note that the Prime Minister says that he had the prior consent of the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, but the prosecutions of these men should be left, in the Association's view, to take their proper course, and not to have the kind of commentary that has been attached to the transcript of the film," she said.

Mr Richter said the Prime Minister's comments were politically motivated.

"To make those sorts of inflammatory utterances is calculated to influence the judicial process and it's being done for a political purpose," he said.

Mr Houda also questioned the links between the Government and police.

"Is it coincidental that every time the Prime Minister is in the shit his mates find him a terrorist?"

The information Mr Abbott read to Parliament is contained in the statement of facts police present to court as part of the case. That information has not yet been made public.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) in a statement said Mr Abbott's comments would not affect their role to "evaluate evidence" and "conduct prosecutions before the courts":

"Given the concern for public safety that attaches to allegations of terrorism, senior government officials are often briefed on major counter-terrorism investigations. "They sometimes choose to provide additional information to the public as they see fit. "The CDPP forms its own view about the evidence in any given case. "The comments made by the Prime Minister in this case will not have any impact on the CDPP's role or function, especially as this is in the very early stages of the matter, and any jury trial is unlikely to take place until much later in the year."

Omar Al-Kutobi, Mohammad Kiad accused of plotting terrorist act

Omar Al-Kutobi, 24, and Mohammad Kiad, 25, are accused of plotting an imminent terrorist act.

They were arrested during a raid on a converted garage in the backyard of a house in Fairfield in Sydney's west on Tuesday.

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Police allege that during the raid they found a machete, a hunting knife, an Islamic State flag and the video.

Mr Abbott told Parliament the two men said they would carry out their attack by "stabbing the kidneys and striking the necks".

"Kneeling before the death cult flag with a knife in his hand and a machete before him, one of those arrested said this: 'I swear to almighty Allah we will carry out the first operation for the soldiers of the caliphate in Australia'," Mr Abbott said.

"I don't think it would be possible to witness uglier fanaticism than this - more monstrous fanaticism and extremism than this - and I regret to say it is now present in our country."

Latest in string of criticisms aimed at PM's judgement

The criticism from the legal community came hours after the Prime Minister was forced to apologise for invoking the Holocaust to describe job losses under the previous Labor government.

"Under members opposite Defence jobs in this country declined by 10 per cent," he said.

"There was a holocaust of jobs in Defence industries under members opposite."

He withdrew the term, changing the description to a "decimation of jobs" and later apologised.

Some of those who supported the failed spill motion against the Prime Minister on Monday did so because they questioned his political judgement.

One of the MPs who publicly backed the spill, Queensland's Wyatt Roy, made this observation about the Prime Minister as he left Parliament on Thursday night:

"I think he did a great job of answering those questions in Question Time, he also very clearly stated what I think was a very unfortunate use of words in Question Time regarding the Holocaust, and we're human, we make mistakes," Mr Roy told reporters.

But other colleagues had a more upbeat assessment of the Prime Minister's week.

"He's had a great week, I think the Government's had a really good week," Eric Hutchinson, the MP for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons said.