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 2000 leaked incident reports of abuse and self-harm among asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru, 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.
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.
