The leader of Australia's right-wing One Nation Party, Pauline Hanson, says the number of immigrants entering the country should be cut drastically.

Ms Hanson -- the party's only member of parliament -- rejected multiculturism, saying she didn't want to see Australia Asianised.

Correspondents say the sudden emergence of sizeable support for the One Nation party in recent state elections has worried the Australian political mainstream.

One community leader Randolph Alwis of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia described Ms Hanson's comments as a racist diatribe that would set Australia back two-hundred years.