THE federal coalition's indigenous health spokesman will keep his job, despite widespread criticism of his comments on Twitter about violent racial clashes in Logan.

On Monday night, Andrew Laming, the MP for Bowman, tweeted: "Mobs tearing up Logan. Did any of them do a day's work today, or was it business as usual and welfare on tap?"

At 9.45am today, Mr Laming tweeted: "To clarify: Working together to resolve these riots the priority. Training and a chance for jobs are key."

Asked whether Mr Laming would keep his job despite the widely condemned post, acting Opposition Leader Warren Truss told AAP: "Clearly, yes".

He said Mr Laming had appropriately followed up with a clarifying tweet, which suggested he meant to say that training and employment were key ways to solve the community's issues.

LNP MP Bert van Manen, whose electorate was affected by the riots, earlier distanced himself from Mr Laming's original comments.

"I don't accept last nights post about people in Logan & the continued #woodridge comments are detracting from the positives in our community," he tweeted.

Earlier, the Federal Government condemned Mr Laming or posting inflammatory comments about racial tensions in Logan, south of Brisbane, on Twitter.

The opposition's spokesman for indigenous health posted remarks on the social networking site on Monday night, after clashes between Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities at Logan.

Federal Trade Minister Craig Emerson told the ABC Mr Laming's quotes were disgraceful and callous, and inflaming a tense situation for political gain was appalling.

Mr Emerson, whose electorate is in the area, also hit back at Mr Laming's clarification.

"Working together to resolve the riots not helped by your inflammatory comments," Dr Emerson said on twitter.

When contacted by The Courier-Mail, Mr Laming confirmed it was his tweet, but said he did not comment on his social media.

media_camera Craig Emerson tweet

He then tweeted about being contacted by this newspaper and about a petition started against him.

"ALPChange.org just concocted a petty-ition. Please sign if asking whether 'rioters' have jobs offends you," he said.

The earlier tweet sent social media users into a frenzy, many slamming him.

"You are a disgrace to Public Office - these kinds of comments are unhelpful from any politician and display an ignorance that is detrimental to decent public discourse. Australia (including Queensland) deserves better!" Facebook user Eithne Leita commented.

media_camera Andrew Laming tweet

But others were not so outraged.

"Andrew is just saying what many of us are thinking," Facebook user Belinda Leonard said.

Opposition frontbencher Greg Hunt this morning said all MPs should be "extremely cautious" about how they approach such incidents.

"In the meantime, we do need to ensure that there are adequate policing and community resources and that we do all we can to separate the two parties," he told Sky News.

Cabinet minister Penny Wong said it was incumbent on MPs to behave responsibly and to act in ways that did not inflame situations.

Indigenous man Paul Butterworth, who has gone to Woodridge to protect his family from the violence, told the ABC Mr Laming's comments were insulting.

"He may as well just come over here and we'll all lay down on the ground. He may as well just kick us all in the guts and tell us we're a lost cause," he said.

In May last year, the MP who prides himself on being social media-savvy

was revealed to have "liked" a raft of anti-Tony Abbott, anti-Campbell Newman and pro-carbon tax pages on Facebook

.

Mr Laming - on his official electorate office Facebook page - was listed then as a fan of pages including "Tony Abbott will never be Prime Minister", "Friends don't let friends vote for Tony Abbott", "I hate Tony Abbott" and "That awkward moment when someone says they like Tony Abbott".

In early 2011, Mr Laming released a handbook of social media tips for MPs, and his official website calls him "Australia's most innovative user of social media in politics".

Mr Laming told The Courier-Mail in May last year he had liked the pages to gain access to the forums.

Later that year, he came under fire for liking the page "How's Julia Gillard going to run the country from the kitchen?".

- reporting by Brittany Vonow, Steven Scott and AAP