The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said “there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries”, doubling down on his immigration policy and refusing to call out Pauline Hanson’s hardline stance.

Speaking to the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Taylor also defended preferencing One Nation above the independent community candidate, Michelle Milthorpe, in the upcoming Farrer byelection, arguing the teals “vote with the Greens”.

Since being elected the Liberal leader, Taylor has singled out migrants from countries “ruled by fundamentalists, extremists and dictators” as being less likely to “subscribe” to liberal democratic values.

On Sunday, when asked whether migrants from China or Vietnam were less likely to fit in than migrants from Britain, he went further, specifically labelling some nations as “bad countries”.

“Many good people come from bad countries. Some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time,” Taylor said.

“But there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries.”

Taylor pointed to Iran as a “bad country”, but would not directly name any others.

“We have bad countries around the world. I mean, to claim that Iran is a good country right now, seriously, and the government itself has put legislation in place to make it harder for people to come from Iran. We have seen terrible acts of atrocity coming from Gaza,” he said.

“I mean, we know they’re in the Middle East and elsewhere, that have committed great atrocities on their own populations.”

Australia has a non discriminatory migration system, meaning people from specific countries are not blocked from applying for entry. Taylor said his party’s policy is in line with that, saying it would discriminate based on people who do not accept Australia’s “core values”.

The Labor government last month banned close to 7,000 Iranian nationals with visitor visas from travelling to Australia for six months under new legislation, over concerns visitors may not be able to return to Iran.

Taylor also refused to call out Hanson’s language on migration, and said he agreed with her on some issues. Hanson will speak at an anti-immigration rally outside parliament house on Sunday.

“In some things we might agree on and I am sure there are things we don’t agree on,” Taylor said.

Hanson has called for all visas to be capped at 130,000 per year, while claiming credit for the Liberal party’s more hardline stance on the issue.

Taylor defended preferencing One Nation ahead of the community independent candidate in Sussan Ley’s former seat of Farrer, calling it the “least worst option”. The Liberals will preference the Nationals’ Brad Robertson second, ahead of the One Nation candidate, David Farley, in fourth position and Milthorpe in ninth, according to a mock how-to-vote card published on candidate Raissa Butkowski’s campaign website.

Milthorpe and Farley are seen as the frontrunners in the byelection, meaning the flow of preferences could be crucial in the final outcome.

Ley represented the seat of Farrer for 25 years. Previously the seat was held by the Nationals.

“You choose the least worst option in preferencing and the least worst option is the National Party for the Liberal Party,” Taylor said.

“We have a group of teals in this parliament, that are trashing our energy system, are ready and have been trashing access to water and the strength of the our agricultural communities and we simply cannot endorse that … They vote with the Greens majority of the time.”

Milthorpe has told Guardian Australia she is not a “teal”, though has received some support from Climate 200, independent MP Helen Haines and independent senator David Pocock.