Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs has endured a complex Senate Estimates session.
She was quizzed on offshore processing, allegations of torture on Nauru and the selection process for the new sex discrimination commissioner.
There were heated scenes in senate estimates as senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Ian Macdonald stoush over conditions inside Australia's offshore detention facility on Nauru.
Sitting before them were Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs and Attorney-General George Brandis.
The session was meant to last one hour.
It lasted four.
In an early exchange, Senator Hanson-Young took exception to the questioning of Nationals Senator Barry O'Sullivan over the impact immigration detention was having on children.
HANSON YOUNG: "Excuse me."
O'SULLIVAN: "It's a reasonable question in the circumstances. Do you share the view professor that we're torturing these children?"
LABOR SENATOR JACINTA COLLINS: "You don't need to answer that."
O'SULLIVAN: "Well she will when my time comes."
HANSON-YOUNG: "You can wait to be a pig then."
O'SULLIVAN: "That's outrageous."
An hour later, Senator O'Sullivan asked Professor Triggs whether detention of children on Nauru amounted to torture.
Professor Triggs told him he had been misinformed.
"I'm afraid you're misstating the view of the United Nations rapporteur. There's a difference between torture and cruel punishment and his view - and, I understand, the view of others within the UN system at seniors levels - is that the treatment of the children in respect of Nauru, in particular, constitutes cruel punishment."
Professor Triggs added that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on Rights of the Child should protect against any such cruel treatment.
Senator O'Sullivan went on to suggest it would make no difference to the health of asylum seekers if they lived on Nauru or in a suburb of Australia.
Professor Triggs said that was an entirely inappropriate comparison.
Meantime, Senator Brandis' revealed his September recommendation for the role of new sex discrimination commissioner had been rejected by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
He said Mr Turnbull had preferred an appointment made at arm's length** and a panel had been convened to select the next commissioner.
Chris Moraitis, Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, conducted the panel, which also included the former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
However, Professor Triggs said she was excluded from the group after initial consultation with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
That was despite the president of the Human Rights Commission usually being included and consulted on such appointments.
"He explained to me that he was very keen to have a proper process for selection and asked whether this would cause any difficulties to the Commission if it were to be delayed longer, if there were to be a proper process. I said that I was happy for the process to take longer in order for it to be a transparent, open and usual process. It was left at that and I've not subsequently been consulted."
It was suggested that former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin had been nominated for the role.
But Senator Brandis told estimates Ms Credlin was never a candidate.
He confirmed cabinet has agreed on who will fill the role as sex discrimination commissioner and that an announcement will be made this week.
