Rural Aust welcomes Syrians: Joyce

Regional communities are lining up for the opportunity to extend some country hospitality to Syrian refugees being resettled in Australia, Barnaby Joyce says.

The Deputy Nationals leader says public meetings he's attended in country towns with declining populations are overwhelmingly supportive of accepting some of the 12,000 refugees Australia is taking.

"(The attitude is) if these people turn up, how are we going to help them," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.