Immigration Minister Peter Dutton stands by his claims over the escalation of tension on Manus Island. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen PNG police have said the boy was 10, not five, and he was simply given fruit at the centre before being escorted out, and left unharmed. Mr Knight called on Mr Dutton to release CCTV footage or other evidence, after the minister claimed on Sunday to possess information not available to the public and the media. "His comment that he knows more than we do is ridiculous," Mr Knight told ABC Radio National on Monday. "I'm on the ground, I'm the MP from here. If he knows more than I do then he must have a really good intelligence organisation and it must be Australian, not PNG."

However, Mr Knight's credibility has been called into question after a court last week upheld a 2015 decision dismissing him from office after he was found guilty of misappropriating funds. Mr Knight remained in office through the appeal, which was rejected on Wednesday, just a day before writs were issued for PNG's upcoming election. Fairfax Media understands Mr Knight plans to recontest his Manus Island seat. He referred to himself as an MP in the ABC interview on Monday. Mr Knight said the Good Friday incident, in which up to 100 shots were fired by PNG soldiers later revealed to be intoxicated, started after an asylum seeker allegedly assaulted a military officer. "The incident was caused by a uniformed officer being assaulted. It was sparked by a spur of the moment thing that happened," he said.

"If it was a local who did the same thing it would have ended up the same way." Mr Knight said Australian authorities, who fund and administer the camp, should release the evidence rather than suggesting the matter was in the hands of PNG. "It's really easy for them to pass the buck and that's what's been happening," he said. Mr Knight conceded there was tension between some locals and some refugees, who are now able to move freely around the province as a result of the detention centre being declared "open" last year. Part of the bad will arises from two separate sexual assault charges laid against asylum seekers this year, one involving the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl. Neither has been convicted, and both contest the charges.

"There definitely is tension there. There is angst in the local society," Mr Knight said. "There's always a dynamic in there which is bad and good - there are the bad ones [asylum seekers], there are the good ones." Mr Dutton defended his case on Sunday, claiming he had been briefed by "senior people on the island" and repeating that the mood was "elevated" as a result of the previous sexual assault charges and the incident involving the child. "There are facts that I have that you don't," he told the ABC's Insiders program. "I can give you the facts in relation to it, or you can take the Twitter version." Loading Mr Dutton's political opponents have seized on the confusion, with Labor's shadow immigration minister Shayne Neumann calling on him to apologise, and Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim demanding he be sacked.