Controversial comments made by deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley, where she compared the arrival of British settlers in Australia in 1788 to Elon Musk's attempts to build a colony on Mars, has been criticised for invoking terra nullius.

Speaking in her hometown of Albury on January 26, the Member for Farrer told a mass service Australians should be proud of January 26, calling the country "peaceful, prosperous and free".

She told the congregation when the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, they did not arrive, "as some would have you believe, as invaders".

"They did not come to destroy or to pillage," Ms Ley said.

"In what could be compared to Elon Musk's Space X's efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment.

"A new experiment and a new society.

"And just like astronauts arriving on Mars those first settlers would be confronted with a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential."

Unlike Mars, which has no humans, the Australian continent was home to a significant number of Aboriginal people, with the latest data showing a continual occupation of the land for at least 65,000 years.

The term terra nullius, meaning "land belonging to no one," was used to justify Britain's colonisation of Australia, which resulted in mass deaths, removal of children from families, and removal of wealth and land from First Nations people across the continent.

The fictitious argument was only overturned by the Australian High Court in 1992.

Human rights lawyer Dr Hannah McGlade told NITV Ms Ley's analogy was "disrespectful and worse," because "we all know that Australia was founded under the lie of terra nullius".

"This was a racist legal fiction that was applied to the lands of Indigenous peoples on the basis of the purported superiority of the white race," Dr McGlade said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he thought someone was "making it up" when he was first told of Ms Ley's comments.

"This is the second most senior person in the Coalition—the deputy leader of the Coalition has suggested that there is an analogy here…there aren't people that we know of in Mars," he said.

"Australia was not terra nullius when Captain Phillip and the First Fleet came through Sydney Cove. And I thought that was a very strange analogy to draw, and one that was disrespectful of the fact that there were people here."

A spokesperson for Ms Ley said it was "not surprising to see Anthony Albanese lacks the imagination to understand the significance of Australia's founding story".

"This is the problem when you have a prime minister who was an activist at university instead of a student — he may see Australia's founding as an invasion story, but I do not," the spokesman said.

Ms Ley also called out the protests and criticism of January 26, telling the congregation in Albury: "Because despite the black arm brigade, who will be marching in the streets of our cities today, the fact is the story of Australia is one that is objectively good. We need to reject what those mobs are saying today through their loudspeakers and their iPhones."

"The problem with those activists is they are so fixated with projecting themselves as survivors, that they leave no room for us to come together as citizens."

Dr McGlade compared the comments to newly elected US President Donald Trump's.

"It's very inflammatory, clearly racist, and drawing on Trump and his recent success," she said, NITV reports.

"This current Liberal opposition are not fit for government ... they would be a disaster for Aboriginal people that we can't afford."

However, the Coalition's newly appointed Indigenous Health Services spokeswoman Kerrynne Liddle said she "gets very tired" about the "ongoing conversation about blaming colonisation for everything".

The Arrernte woman told ABC Radio National when she knocks on people's doors who are struggling, they don't mention 1788.

"To me, they don't say, 'Can you fix up everything since 1788.' What they say to me is, 'Can you fix my home? Can you improve my health? Can you improve education standards for my children?'" Ms Liddle said.

"I'm talking about where we are today, where we want to be tomorrow, not looking back."