Morrison up for any challenge

Scott Morrison is up for being prime minister one day.

In an interview with the local paper in his Sydney electorate, the immigration minister acknowledged his political ambitions.

"I am up for any challenge, but right now I know what the challenge is and the challenge is this job," he said in the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader on Friday.

Mr Morrison said that former prime minister John Howard advised him years ago, when he became director of the Liberal Party in NSW, to focus on doing that job well.

"That's all you should think about, and if you want to do anything else, then that will hinge on whether you do this job well," he says Mr Howard told him.

"I find those sort of comments encouraging and flattering, but I don't dwell on them."

Attorney-General George Brandis was later asked at a press conference whether he believed the immigration minister had what it takes to become prime minister one day.

"He is one of the absolute stars of this government," Mr Brandis told reporters in Sydney, adding that he had not seen the article.

"For six years, the Labor Party said the boats couldn't be stopped. Mr Morrison assumed the portfolio. He introduced a new set of measures that the Labor Party hadn't had the wit to think of.

"He implemented those policies with purpose and firmness. And is it (more than 80) days now since the last boat arrival."

Senator Brandis said that showed what could be done with a good man, or woman, in the job.

Mr Morrison told his local paper he has received "enormous support" from Sutherland Shire residents over the government's hardline policies aimed at stopping asylum-seekers coming to Australia by boat without a visa.