This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott has responded to a review into allegations of sexual assault in offshore immigration detention centres by saying that “occasionally … things happen”.

The Australian prime minister argued that most asylum seekers transferred to the Nauru and Manus Island processing centres were treated well most of the time.

Rapes and fears for safety on Nauru uncovered by independent Moss review Read more

“Occasionally, I daresay, things happen, because in any institution you get things that occasionally aren’t perfect,” Abbott told 2GB on Friday.

“But, look, the most compassionate thing we can do is stop the boats. That’s what we’ve done and those centres on Nauru and Manus are an important part of that.”

Abbott’s remarks followed the release on Friday of a government-commissioned review by the former integrity commissioner Philip Moss, who noted two specific allegations of rape of two women at the Nauru centre. One of those cases was still being investigated by local police.

The review also concluded that Nauruan guards trading marijuana with detainees in exchange for sexual favours was “possibly occurring”; many people transferred to the centre were apprehensive about their personal safety; and there was under-reporting of sexual and other physical assault.

During the interview with Abbott, the 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham did not directly raise the substance of the assault allegations, but asked whether the government would act on the Moss report’s broader call for improvements to the way abuse claims were investigated.

“You won’t be surprised, Ben, that I haven’t caught up with the details of that,” Abbott replied.

“I know that immigration minister Peter Dutton has got it in hand, but I certainly would strongly defend our policies when it comes comes to border protection. I’d strongly defend the policy of processing boat people who come illegally to our shores in third countries, and the Nauru centre will continue for as long as it is needed, as will the Manus one.”

When Fordham pressed Abbott to explain whether the investigative processes were adequate or needed to be improved, the prime minister said: “Well, Ben, I never say that there’s nothing that can’t go wrong or that there’s nothing that couldn’t be improved.

“Of course, you always improve all sorts of things, but the policy of offshore processing of people who come illegally to this country by boat is right – it really is right. And I would certainly say that the vast majority of people the vast majority of the time are being well treated, well looked after.”

Abbott then made the comments acknowledging occasions when “things happen”.

The prime minister previously faced criticism in November 2013 for saying during a visit to Sri Lanka that while the Australian government deplored any use of torture it accepted “that sometimes in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen”.

The secretary of the immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, received the Moss report early last month and Dutton released it in Brisbane on Friday afternoon.

The review found people were concerned that making a complaint could negatively affect the outcome of their asylum applications, or had “lost confidence that anything would be done about their complaints”, or did not want to make a report for cultural reasons.

Save the Children staff say Moss review exposes negligence on Nauru Read more

But it also said that when formal complaints had been lodged, contract services providers had acted appropriately “in the most part” in dealing with them.

The minister said the government accepted all of the recommendations. “I find the thought of anybody, in particular children, being sexually assaulted completely abhorrent,” Dutton said, vowing to work with Nauruan police to build the capacity of local investigators.

Dutton rejected “an appalling question” about why the report was released hours after the death of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser. He said Pezzullo was on a plane from Canberra before news arrived of Fraser’s passing.