Updated Sep 8, 2026 – 8.03am, first published at 5.00amFormer prime minister John Howard has taken a veiled swipe at One Nation’s calls to ban migrants from countries with high security risks, dismissing the policy as the wrong way to tackle terrorism threats.“The mood is overwhelming that we have to try very hard to stop terrorism creeping in under the cover of immigration, and you can’t do it by just stopping immigration, and it’s very hard to do it by stopping categories of immigration,” Howard told an audience at the Australian National University’s National Security College on Monday evening.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles