Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has defended his outspoken attack on the "racist" Liberal Party, saying the Federal Opposition's policies are being "corrupted" by "hatred".

Yesterday, Mr Wilkie used an appearance in Parliament to condemn what he called the "racism that eats at the Liberal Party" and called for immigration spokesman Scott Morrison and controversial Senator Cory Bernardi to be sacked.

This morning on ABC News Breakfast Mr Wilkie said the pair were only symptoms of a wider racism within the party.

"I don't want to focus too much on two individuals because I think they are symptoms of a bigger problem within the Liberal Party at the moment," he said.

"I do think there is a bigotry, a racism, even a hatred which corrupts some of their policies."

He cited the Opposition's stance on asylum seekers as evidence.

"For example there's Opposition business before the Parliament at the moment trying to deny asylum seekers the use of surplus, that is empty, Defence housing, and I think that's an act of complete bastardry," he said.

And he chastised Opposition Leader Tony Abbott over his call to cut foreign aid to pay for Queensland's flood recovery, a policy that it later emerged had already been put forward by One Nation.

Mr Wilkie compared Senator Bernardi's comments describing Islam as an ideology "mired in sixth-century brutality" to former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's maiden speech, and said the Senator and Mr Morrison should be sacked over the issue.

But Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne has dismissed Mr Wilkie's outburst as "arrant nonsense".

"I don't think his remarks are even worth responding to. It's a free country, he can say whatever he likes but it's clearly arrant nonsense," he told ABC News Breakfast.

Mr Pyne refused to engage on the question of racism in the party, saying there was no truth in any of the comments.

"Cory Bernardi has retracted those remarks, he's apologised on two occasions, and I think that's the end of the matter," he said.

"People can say whatever they like. Just because they say it doesn't mean it's true.

"And the best way to ensure that a story which is rubbish doesn't continue is just to play a dead bat."

While Senator Bernardi apologised for his comments, saying they were referring to fundamentalist Islam, not the religion itself, they remain in their original form up on his website.

Mr Morrison, who was forced to apologise for comments questioning the use of taxpayers' money to bury victims of the Christmas Island shipwreck in Sydney, says Mr Wilkie's comments will not dissuade him from speaking out in future.

"[Parliament] is a passionate place and people say all sorts of things, but the issue here is whether the Government should be held to account for every decision they make," he said.

"I don't think any decision of this Government particularly is above public scrutiny, and nor will I be intimidated by any other member in this place or outside of this place or any media organisation, or any other element of the community, for holding the Government to account for its border protection failures.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has again called for Mr Morrison and Senator Bernardi to be dumped from the Opposition frontbench.

"On that simple matter of principle that we are not a nation that discriminates on the basis of religion, neither Mr Morrison nor Senator Bernardi should continue to hold their positions on Tony Abbott's front bench," she said.

"He can't say he supports a non-discriminatory immigration policy and have those two people serve in the executive of his political party."