Half of Australians to support ban on Muslim immigration: poll

Almost half of Australians will support a ban on Muslim immigration, with many Australians of the belief that Muslims "do not integrate" well into local society and culture, the results of a poll published on Wednesday showed.

Following controversial Australian Senator Pauline Hanson's speech to Parliament last week, in which she said Australia was at risk of being "swamped by Muslims", Essential Research ran a poll of more than 1,000 Australians and found 49 percent would support a ban on Muslim immigration.

Notably, more than a third of those who vote for the Greens - traditionally sympathetic of refugees and supportive of immigration - were for the ban, while 60 percent of conservative, Liberal-National Party (LNP) coalition voters supported a halt on Muslims entering Australia.

Executive director of EMC research Peter Lewis said he was so surprised by the initial result that his company ran the poll a second time, only to get the same result.

"The actual level of support surprised me," Lewis told Buzzfeed News Australia on Wednesday.

"I was worried it was what we call a 'rogue poll' so we repeated and got the exact same result."

Forty-one percent of respondents said the reason for supporting a ban was that Muslims "do not integrate in Australian society" while more than a quarter - 27 percent - cited the threat of terrorism. One fifth said they "do not share our values".

Hanson has previously come out in support of Republican U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump's push for a ban on Muslim immigration in the United States, one of just four Australian politicians to do so. Endit