The mayor of an inner-city Melbourne council has refused to read aloud a message, penned by former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, because of the federal government's controversial asylum seeker policies.

In a letter to Mr Morrison, Moreland Mayor Meghan Hopper said she wanted to uphold the council's tradition of supporting asylum seekers.

The message - which is meant to be read prior to official speeches, but isn't compulsory - is delivered at citizenship ceremonies in Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama.

Mayors of each council share a common reason for doing so.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said that although he didn't agree with the way asylum seekers were treated, the letter was "fairly innocuous".

"It doesn't have reference to asylum seekers or anything like that," Cr Bradbery said.

"It's very generic and full of motherhood statements."

Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba said that it was important people receiving citizenship heard from the minister.

"I always read out the minister's message at every citizenship ceremony ... and if one of his government members are there I let them read the message," Cr Saliba said.

She said the decision to deliver it was one for individuals to make and citizenship shouldn't be confused with asylum seekers or refugees.

Kiama Mayor Brian Petschler preferred not to comment in detail because he wasn't aware of possible message changes following the appointment of Peter Dutton as the new Immigration Minister.

Cr Petschler said he would read the statement.

"I've read it in the past and I certainly have not seen anything offensive in the previous minister's request to have that read out," he said.

In one of his last acts as minister before last month's cabinet reshuffle, Mr Morrison wrote to Cr Hopper and told her the annual Australia Day citizenship ceremony could be cancelled if the message wasn't read.- with the SMH