Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said it’s just an “excuse” to blame Melbourne’s recent Islamic terrorist attack on mental health issues.

In an interview on Studio 10, the Prime Minister said, “This bloke, radicalised here in Australia with extreme Islam, took a knife and cut down a fellow Australian in Bourke Street. I mean, I’m not going to make excuses for that…

“He was a terrorist. He was a radical extremist terrorist who took a knife to another Australian because he’d been radicalised in this country. We can’t give him excuses, and we can’t allow others. These other issues are relevant, don’t get me wrong. But he was radicalised and that’s why he took a knife to people,” he said.

The Prime Minister also doubled down on earlier comments urging Muslim leaders to take “special responsibility” for stamping out radicalism in their communities.

“It’s the elephant in the room. And you’ve got to acknowledge it,” Morrison said. “Now, Imam’s and others who are the leaders in their religious communities need to be looking carefully about who’s coming into their community, who’s talking to their kids, who’s at the back of the mosque and walking out with some young person who seems a bit disenfranchised.”

The Prime Minister went on to address claims that his remarks were racist, calling the accusation of racism, “the same lame old tired excuse for not dealing with this problem…”