Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has hit out at the media over its coverage of asylum seekers and refugees, saying some news organisations need to "reassess their approach".

Earlier this week, Mr Dutton criticised advocates, who he believed were pressuring refugees to "behave in a certain way".

On Thursday, he said some news organisations were making the situation worse.

"There are some media outlets in this country who need to reassess their approach to these matters because again, like advocates, holding false hope out to people that somehow, through different resistance methods, that they're going to come to Australia, they are wrong and they are frankly, I think, prolonging the difficulty of these people," he said.

"They may think that they're smart and well intentioned, but they're not."

Mr Dutton said that while he was saddened by the self-immolations on Nauru, he believed the Government had the right policy settings.

"When I've spoken to the sailors and the ABF staff who have pulled drowned children from the sea, they've pulled body parts from the sea that have been attacked by sharks, that upsets me," he said.

"If you think that I'm going to allow people smugglers to get back into business and allow men, women and children to drown at sea again, then you well and truly underestimate how determined I am."

His comments came as another outgoing Labor MP took aim at the Government's asylum seeker policy, saying that Australia had "hardened its hearts".

Former speaker Anna Burke targeted the policy in her valedictory speech on Thursday, saying that while she was not a policy expert, she knew when "something's wrong".

"Let us turn back while there's still time," she told the chamber.

"These are people so traumatized that some are setting themselves on fire."

Ms Burke's comments echo those made by outgoing Labor MP Melissa Parke on Wednesday, who described Australia's offshore immigration detention network as a "festering wound that is killing people".