The home affairs minister said Australia should “look at the way in which people are on a pathway to citizenship” in the wake of the Bourke Street terror attack, while rebuking those who claim “this is not the problem people make it out to be”.

But Peter Dutton was quick to praise Australia’s security and policing agencies for their actions in foiling at least 14 domestic terror attacks, defending the nation’s intelligence units after it was revealed the perpetrator of Friday’s fatal attack, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, was known to them.

He said there were still lessons to be learned, mentioning reviewing how Australia assesses it’s threats, as well as examining citizenship pathways.

Hassan Khalif Shire Ali deluded and paranoid before Bourke Street attack, friends say Read more

“I’ve been very open about the cancellation of visas, the numbers have ramped up, because there are some people should not go on to become Australian citizens,” he said.

“The law applies differently, obviously, to someone who has Australian citizenship, by conferral or births, as opposed to someone here on a temporary status because they are the holder of a particular visa category.

“So, yes, I mean, there are always lessons to learn; the Police, obviously, the joint taskforce with Victorian Police, the Australian Federal Police – all of those parties will look at every element of this – the movements of this individual before the incident took place – that’s, as you would expect.”

Shire Ali, who was killed by police after he fatally stabbed Melbourne restaurateur Sisto Malaspina, 74 and seriously injured another two bystanders, including Tasmanian businessman Rod Patterson, had his passport cancelled in 2015 and was known to authorities. He had been born in Somalia, and had come to Australia in the 1990s.

But Dutton said there was no available evidence or intelligence Shire Ali had been preparing an attack.

“The judgment made about this individual was that he was not in the planning stage of the attack,” Dutton said from Brisbane on Sunday.

“As I say, where you have someone who is buying chemicals, importing or purchasing online different items that might go to, as precursors to make up an explosive device, you would expect there to be intelligence around that activity.

“Where you have someone who picks up a kitchen knife and grabs a couple of gas bottles and drives into the CBD, these are very difficult circumstances to stop.

“As I say, the police and ASIO have been clear about this for a long time – you have a soft target, that is where you have a place of mass gathering, a mall, or a food court or somewhere else, you have somebody, as we’ve seen overseas with a vehicle, with a knife, an explosive device otherwise, it is very difficult to deal with every one of those situations.

“I have nothing but praise for the judgement that the police and Asio and others have made in very difficult circumstances.”

Dutton pleaded with anyone who had information on suspicious behaviours to continue to come forward, and thanked members of the community who previously had acted. He said some of those tips had proven instrumental in helping authorities to foil at least 14 planned domestic attacks.

But he criticised Labor MP Anne Aly, who was a counter-terrorism academic specialist before entering parliament in 2016, for her comments castigating the prime minister after he called Islamic extremism Australia’s greatest national security threat.

Scott Morrison said Australia “would be kidding ourselves if we did not call out the fact that the greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam” following Friday’s attack.

In response, Aly told Sky News Morrison’s comments were politically desperate” which only divided the community.

The Dutton manifesto: populism, power bills and fewer immigrants Read more

Dutton alluded to Morrison perhaps having “more to say about” his contact with the leadership of Australia’s Islamic community in the coming week, but said people who responded as Aly had, were in denial.

“People [like] I see comments from Anne Aly this morning who want to deny there’s a problem or suggest that this is not the problem people make it out to be - of course it is,” he said.

“A 74-year-old man lost his life. People were stabbed. Two police officers went very close to sustaining significant injuries and we need to be realistic about the threat.

“Where you talk about 400-plus people, who we have concerns about, we need to be realistic about the threat and the idea that community leaders would have information but withhold it from the police or intelligence agencies is unacceptable.

“We’re best to be honest about the problem we’ve so we can address it, because otherwise more Australians will lose their lives.”

Dutton also called on Labor to pass government legislation giving authorities access to encrypted messaging services, a bill which has been criticised by numerous stakeholders as being too broad in execution.