Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has told ABC’s Q&A program that the passage of last month’s medevac bill for critically sick refugees made her “almost physically ill” because she “lived through terrorism and … the Bali bombings”.

Reynolds had been asked, in light of the Christchurch terror attack, whether Australia’s politicians and media had built a fear of migrants and “others” over the past decade.

Her answer prompted host Tony Jones to ask the Liberal minister whether she was linking refugees with terrorism.

Questioner Ray Martin had asked the panel whether politicians created the Islamophobia that allegedly motivated the Christchurch attacker, who was Australian.

“Isn’t it time that our political discourse is more measured, and politicians do not exploit the fear of others, as we have for many years now?” he asked.

“You look back to Tampa, children overboard and issues like that. For a generation now sadly, every election time we start talking about immigration, border security … they’ve been couched, almost for a generation, around ‘others.’”

Jones then asked Reynolds to respond to reports that Scott Morrison, when in opposition, urged colleagues to use the fear of Muslim refugees to win votes.

“Do you agree that fear of others has been used for political purposes?” he asked.

“This is a very personal issue for me,” Reynolds replied. “The circumstances that you were talking about are things I’ve lived through. Last month, I gave probably the hardest and most personal speech I’ve ever given in the Senate. And it was in response to Labor’s amendments to the medevac bill.

“I was literally almost physically ill when I saw some of my Senate and House of Representatives colleagues in the chamber cheering and high-fiving the passage of these amendments. Because I was one of the few in that chamber who has lived through terrorism and the impact, up in the Bali bombings.

“I was up there, I saw, I smelt and I got to understand the commodification of human beings. There are people in our own nation and there are people overseas who want to do us harm. They don’t respect our compassion. And they certainly do not respect our way of life.”

Jones interrupted, asking: “Are you drawing a link between the Bali bombings and refugees coming to Australia for medical services?”

Reynolds: “What I’m saying is that having my colleagues cheer for this policy that will inevitably lead to the boat trade coming again.

“There are thousands of people who are up near north, who people smugglers don’t see as human beings, but as commodities to profit from. I saw that first-hand in 2001 and 2002. I saw the consequences on those who are desperate enough to come here and they drowned the most horrendous deaths. And it happened again when Labor opened the borders.”

She said Morrison had not used anti-Muslim sentiment to win votes. “The prime minister has been very clear tonight it did not happen. It simply did not happen. For anybody to politicise this issue now … is inappropriate and tacky”.

Earlier Reynolds also answered a similar question that asked whether politicians such as Pauline Hanson and Nationals MP George Christensen “bear some responsibility for the rise in Islamophobia”.

“Now is the time for grieving,” she said. “It is the time for support … it is a time for all of us in politics to come together. It is not a time for a politician, a commentator to make cheap political points of this issue.”

But she also called on her colleagues to censure independent senator Fraser Anning.

Labor MP Cathy O’Toole said Christchurch had “drawn our attention to the consequences of [our]words” and told politicians and media “to be much more mindful”.

The rest of the episode then discussed the impact of the Townsville floods and climate change on rural Australia – as had been initially planned before Friday’s attack occurred.

Professor Stephen Williams told the audience “climate science has been predicting an increase in extreme events [for 30 years].

“We’ve had the hottest summer on record, we’ve had the hottest year on record. My son, who is 18, 17 of his 18 years have been the hottest on record for the globe.”

Williams praised the actions of the climate strikers – as did Reynolds.

“How many students here went on strike and did their protest?” she asked. “Can I say I love your passion and I love your commitment. It is great you are engaging in democracy and having your say about climate change.”

Reynolds told the crowd she believed in climate change, but said her ministerial responsibility was “not carbon emissions”, but “how do we look at the dumb things we’ve done to make it worse”.

“How do we make sure we don’t build houses in floodplains … that the roads and infrastructure we build don’t wash away every time we get flooded,” she said.

O’Toole said she was a believer in “prevention rather than reaction after the event” and criticised the government for not doing enough.

When asked if Labor would give support to the Adani coalmine, O’Toole she said she would represent the community of her Queensland electorate.

“People in the north do not like people in the south-east telling us what we can and can’t do,” she said. But then added: “It is not a wise community that invests all its eggs in one basket.”