(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The Abbott government says the Australian detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea is operating normally, following fighting outside it last week between PNG military and police.
The MP for Manus says there are unconfirmed reports that Australian navy people* were involved in the fighting.
And he is warning that further clashes at the site are likely.
Murray Silby has the details.
(Click on audio tab above to listen to this report).
The fighting took place last Friday morning outside the temporary Manus Island detention centre.
The centre has been a source of tension on the island since Australia's former Labor government implemented its so-called PNG solution to dealing with asylum seekers.
Earlier this year, local landholders allegedly threatened to force the centre to shut down unless their demands for compensation for the impact on their land and water are met.
But Manus MP Ron Knight, Vice Minister for Trade in Papua New Guinea's government, says longstanding rivalry, fuelled by alcohol and low morale, is behind the latest incident.
"A soldier was quite drunk, and the police got involved with it, and they gave him a bit of a going-over. And his compatriots were not happy about that, so they retaliated, and it became a rock-throwing match."
Asylum seekers are currently housed at the Lombrum naval base.
Mr Knight says he has also been told members of the Australian navy at the base were involved in last week's fracas.
"There were conflicting reports that the police were backed up by Australian navy personnel and they arrested some of the people involved, but that is not confirmed. I am still trying to get confirmation of that. From what I heard, there were no guns used by the Australian navy or any of the personnel there, but they were just about to come to that position. If things had gotten a bit worse, that would have happened."
Locals on Manus Island have reported security guards left asylum seekers locked inside the centre, after fleeing from it during the fighting.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says Australian government officials and service providers took what he calls appropriate measures, and no staff or asylum seekers were injured in the incident.
Mr Morrison says no staff were evacuated from the island, and the centre continues to operate normally.
He says he is not concerned about Papua New Guinea's ability to properly process and handle asylum seekers.
"There's nothing to suggest otherwise at this present time, and the Secretary for Immigration is actually in Papua New Guinea this week. And that's part of the ongoing process of collaboration, and there's been extensive levels of support and training and mentoring being provided to Papua New Guinea and Nauru to manage those processes. And I haven't seen anything to suggest that there are issues associated with that."
Labor's immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, has criticised the Coalition government for taking two days to reveal the details of the disturbance.
Mr Marles has told the ABC the Coalition's media approach is wrong.
"It shouldn't take 48 hours before we hear from the Minister about exactly what happened with an incident like this. And I doubt, if we had not had a media, whether Scott Morrison would have ever explained exactly what occurred on Friday."
Ron Knight maintains a lack of discipline in the PNG military means similar incidents are likely in the future.
And he says resentment towards the asylum-seeker processing centre will continue.
Mr Knight says that is exacerbated by the poor reputation of the centre's operator, the Australian government-appointed private security contractor G4S.
Two local G4S staff have been arrested in Papua New Guinea for allegedly orchestrating the country's biggest bank heist in Port Moresby earlier this month.
Mr Knight says the low morale among PNG soldiers and an animosity between them and the PNG police ever since independence is also hurting the people of Manus.
"Well, it bodes a feeling of insecurity. These are people that we have to depend on to look after us, and, when they act like that, you know, it doesn't make a good impression at all."
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