Peter Dutton suggests Fraser government made mistake by resettling Lebanese refugees

“The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background,” he said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) states that arrivals of people born in Lebanon peaked at 4,906 in 1977, with a smaller peak of 2,600 in 1987.

It further stated that since 1992 arrivals have been relatively stable, fluctuating between 883 and 1,368 persons annually.

As of 2006, the number of Australians of Lebanese background totalled 181,738 — including 16,201 people whose parents were born in Australia.

According to figures from the ABS, more than 10.6 million Australians had at least one grandparent born overseas as of 2011.