Loading “I mean, I’m not going to make excuses for that. Of course issues of mental health and all these other things are important. “Those things lead to many other --,” he said, before being interrupted with a question that highlighted the debate over whether the attack was the result of extreme ideology or mental illness. The Ten Network host asked: “Was he a terrorist, or just a madman?” Mr Morrison replied: “He was a terrorist. He was a radical, extremist terrorist, who took a knife to another Australian because he’d been radicalised in this country. And we can’t give him excuses.”

Mr Morrison added: “These other issues are relevant, don’t get me wrong, but he was radicalised, and that’s why he took a knife to people.” The exchange reprises the debate about whether attacks are motivated by Islamist preaching or mental illness, an argument that took place in the wake of the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney in 2014. "He was a terrorist": Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday's attacker on Bourke Street, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali'. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Forensic psychologist and radicalisation expert Kate Barrelle told the inquest into the siege that gunman Man Haron Monis was "undoubtedly a terrorist" and that the attack "was an act of radicalisation by a disturbed man". Mr Morrison said the Bourke Street attack showed that Muslim community leaders needed to make sure they intervened to stop radicalisation.

“What is happening in these communities is we have people coming in to them and spreading this vile evil and taking advantage of vulnerable people in their community," he said. “Now, imams and others who are the leaders in their religious communities need to be looking carefully at who is coming in to their community, who’s talking to their kids, who’s at the back of the mosque and walking out with some young person who seems a bit disenfranchised. “Do they go up and talk to these young people? I know in many cases they do. There is, I think, a very positive level of cooperation, but there needs to be a heightened sense, because you can’t watch everybody. “What you need to do is ensure that the community is working constructively together with authorities, to see who is influencing who and how.” Asked about claims that his criticisms were racist dog-whistling, Mr Morrison said this was the “same old, tired excuse” that was always made.

Loading “I don’t believe that is where the majority of decent, hard-working, respectable Australian Muslims are at. They want their community to be safer and there are people coming in to their community and they are infecting their young people and others with hatred and false teaching, which is taking them on the wrong path. “Now, that has to be called out and it has to be stopped. “This happened because of an Australian citizen who was radicalised in Australia – he didn’t bring it from somewhere else, he learnt it all here.” On the question of whether remarks like his were racist, Mr Morrison said critics could throw that claim at him if they liked but that he had worked closely with Muslim community leaders over many years.

He named Dr Jamal Rifi, an Australian Lebanese Muslim GP and community leader, as “brave man” who had stood up in his community against radicalisation. Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who oversaw a major strengthening of Australia’s counter-terrorism laws, on Monday said Mr Morrison was “quite right to say on the weekend that there is a problem within Islam”. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Mr Abbott said the vast majority of Muslims in Australia were “decent people who have joined our team and have embraced the Australian way of life”. “But there is this small minority that have this ‘death to the infidel’ mindset and the sooner Islam can rid itself of that, the better for everyone,” he told 2GB radio.