Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has lashed out at his critics in the media, declaring the ABC and The Guardian are "dead to me" over their reporting of his views on South African refugees.
Mr Dutton stoked controversy by arguing for "special attention" in Australia's refugee program for white South African farmers, reportedly being persecuted and murdered at the rate of one a week.
He said they needed help from a "civilised country" like Australia, prompting outrage from the South African government, which demanded he retract and summoned Australia's High Commissioner for urgent talks.
There was apparent division within the Turnbull government too, as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop talked down the idea of a special program for white South African farmers.
But Mr. Dutton on Thursday said there was no conflict between himself and Ms. Bishop, arguing it was actually confected outrage by "crazy lefties" at media outlets who were peddling "fake news".
"The ABC and others report these things how they want to report them and how they want to interpret them," he told 2GB radio.
"There's lots of outrage. Some of the crazy lefties at the ABC and on The Guardian, Huffington Post, express concern and draw mean cartoons about me and all the rest of it."
"They don't realise how completely dead they are to me. So we just get on with making decisions that we need to."
Mr. Dutton rejected accusations of racism in his determination to prioritise white South African farmers in Australia's humanitarian migration program, or in his previous remarks about African gang activity in Melbourne.
"I'm completely blind as to somebody's skin colour, it makes no difference to me," Mr Dutton said. "It concerns me that people are being persecuted at the moment - the number of people dying or being savagely attacked in South Africa is a reality."
Mr Dutton said his department had been inundated " with messages of support" and referrals to potential refugee cases in South Africa, which he was determined to act on.
"We'll start to work through those and if people meet the criteria under the program then they'll settle under the program here, that's the reality," he said.
"If people think that I'm going to cower or take a backwards step because of their nonsense fabricated fake news criticism, they've got another thing coming."