The Nationals state MLC last week jointly sponsored a petition by 57 politicians calling on the Commonwealth government to increase the refugee intake from Afghanistan.

Australia should not repeat its selfish interwar decision to refuse Jewish refugees of the Nazis, a decision Mr Khan said gave Australians a degree of responsibility for the Holocaust.

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"I think we have an obligation on a regional basis, on a city basis to share in the burden and provide the opportunities for these people," he said.

In the days after the collapse of the country's government, the Morrison government committed to rehoming 3000 Afghans. Mr Khan said the number is not enough.

Thousands more worked for Australian or other countries' military or diplomatic missions. Those people are now targets for the Taliban.

Local Afghan migrants have told the Leader of door-to-door searches by agents of the new government, including their own family members.

Mr Khan said Australia cannot abandon them to a choice between death and years in the region's already-overloaded detention centres.

They should be offered homes in rural Australia, he said.

"The worst thing that we can do is simply bring them in and dump them in Sydney or Newcastle, or Melbourne," he said.

"The capacity to integrate is greater [in rural areas]. For there to be an interaction between Australians-born Australians and the immigrant population.

"You can't always look at this as providing a benefit to Australia in the immediate term. That was the sort of approach pre-WW2 we took with regards to whether we should take in Jews from Europe. Australia said - 'well we won't'. What we ended up with is sharing the responsibility of allowing a large portion of people to be annihilated. You've got to take it as a fundamental responsibility in this case arising out of our shared experience and commitment to a war."

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Multicultural Tamworth founder Eddie Whitham agreed the city should rehome Afghans, but city residents should be asked first.

Mr Whitham was very critical of the slow-moving bureaucracy of Australia's immigration systems.

Tamworth's first Afghan refugee of the recent crisis, Mitrashiva Hussaini, has already spent weeks in hotel quarantine in Sydney and still has weeks to wait until she will be allowed to travel to the city.

The statement was signed by Members of Parliament from across the political divide including members of the Liberal and Nationals parties, the Labor Party, Greens, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Christian Democrats and several independents.

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