Almost 10,000 people have voted in a poll asking if Donald Trump should be banned from entering Australia, with a whopping 73 per cent of them as of Friday saying he should be denied entry.

The Lateline poll came after a petition in the UK attracted more than 570,000 signatures calling for the American billionaire to be banned there because of his so-called hate speech. That petition triggered a debate in Britain's house of commons.

The Republican presidential hopeful called for a "total and complete shutdown" on all Muslims entering the United States and he also claimed that Muslims in New Jersey were cheering after the September 11 attacks.

More than 9,300 people took part in Lateline's Facebook poll as of Friday, with the overwhelming majority supporting a ban.

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But many in the comments section were opposed to restricting entry, labelling the poll results moronic and citing free speech.

"Sigh the results from this show the disturbing state of discourse. Not agreeing with Trump isn't really a reason to ban his entry..." "As though one sermon from Trump is all that Australia needs to rise to it's full bigoted potential. As though it wasn't already." - Pearce Hayward

"Omg!!! Majority of Australians are morons. God help our nation." - Tim Butler

Others like Matt Hrkac accused the ABC of trolling its audience:

"People who support free speech complaining that people are exercising their right to free speech by voting 'yes' in this poll." "I don't know whether it was the ABC's intention - but they sure have uncovered a whole lot of right-wing hypocrites. Good trolling, that."

Twitter had a different view, with just 44 per cent of the 1,493 voters as of Friday saying Donald Trump should be banned from entering Australia.

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"He hasn't killed anybody + we are a free country, are we not? Since when has free speech become illegal" - Admiral Akbar

The Immigration Department has the power to block anyone entering Australia if they fail a character test.

A person could fail the character test if they vilify a segment of the Australian community or incite discord in the community or segment of a community.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 56 seconds 1 m 56 s Lateline's 'Late Debate' Donald Trump poll produces a surprise result ( Brigid Anderson )

Mr Trump has visited Australia in the past but there is no indication he is planning on visiting again, nor is there anything to signal the Government would try to restrict him from entering the country.

Mr Trump's straight talking and promise to "make America great again" has been wildly popular among conservative white voters who have otherwise felt ignored and disengaged from politics in America.

The Republican establishment was even shocked by Mr Trump's longevity as the party's frontrunner, until he was felled earlier this week by ultra-conservative Ted Cruz at the Iowa caucuses.

The rural Midwestern state backed Mr Cruz for their party's nomination with 27.7 per cent of votes to Mr Trump's 24 per cent.