Sexual abuse at Nauru's detention centre will not be tolerated, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton insists, but he says there have been cases of people making false allegations in a bid to get to Australia.
In the wake of more than , Labor has called for a bipartisan approach to create a children's advocate and institute mandatory reporting.
Mr Dutton weighed into the controversy on Thursday.
"I won't tolerate any sexual abuse whatsoever," he told Ray Hadley on 2GB radio.
The minister said he had been made aware of cases of "false allegations of sexual assaults" because people who paid money to people smugglers still wanted to come to Australia.
He dismissed the opposition's "free advice", blaming Labor for losing control of Australia's borders when in government.
Opposition immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann plans to reintroduce private legislation when parliament returns later in August.
Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs agreed with Labor's call for someone independent of government to have responsibility for the children.
"It's been quite contrary to even the most basic rule of law to have the minister also be the guardian," she said.
The immigration department says the leaked documents are evidence of rigorous reporting procedures in place in offshore detention centres.
But many of the incident reports reflected unconfirmed allegations not statements of proven fact, it said.
Professor Triggs said incidents had occurred and were reported by professionals.
They were not events from "dark history" but had occurred as recently as October 2015.
"Offshore processing could work in a humane way collaboratively with our neighbours. It clearly is not working at the moment and I think the only solution is to bring the children home," Prof Triggs said.
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The Greens described as "abhorrent" Mr Dutton's comments that incidents involving child sexual abuse might be fabricated.
"To attack a child for telling an adult - someone they should trust - that they've been abused is unthinkable," Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
