Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is so out of touch with his portfolio he did not know a homemade bomb had been found in a Sydney detention centre, the opposition says.
The makings of a homemade bomb were found in the Villawood detention centre's computer room in March this year, a month before riots and fires broke.
Mr Bowen admitted on radio on Wednesday morning he wasn't aware the makings of the bomb had been discovered.
"That's a very serious allegation, which I will have examined with the appropriate seriousness," he told Macquarie radio. His remarks prompted outrage from his opposition counterpart Scott Morrison.
"There was a bomb in a detention centre and minister Bowen had no knowledge of that," he told reporters in Sydney.
"It demonstrates just how out of touch and out of control this minister is with his own portfolio...
"If he wasn't told then he should have been told, if he wasn't told then heads should roll."
An aerosol can, a bottle of Johnson's baby oil and a bottle of canola oil were discovered on a table inside a computer room at the centre centre on March 19. Officers had been called to the centre following a fire they believe was deliberately lit.
It has been reported that staff from the centre extinguished the blaze before it reached the suspected bomb. Fingerprint and DNA tests are being carried out on the items, police said.
The fire in the computer room was followed by a riot at the detention centre on April 20, which left nine buildings gutted and led to 22 detainees being questioned by police.
Mr Morrison said the March fire should have acted as a warning there was trouble brewing at the centre.
"This incident should have triggered a series of actions from this minister," he said. "I can think of few bigger warning signs that there was a riot brewing and people looking to destroy property, than people having made a bomb in a detention centre."
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