Canadian journalist Naomi Klein has skewered Australia for its treatment of asylum seekers in offshore detention, comparing the policy to one proposed by Donald Trump.

On the ABC's Q&A on Monday night, Ms Klein - an author and climate change activist - said the conditions on Nauru and Manus Island were an "international atrocity".

"I find it shocking that people on Nauru and Manus are lighting themselves on fire, sewing their mouths shut, so they can be heard," Ms Klein said.

"They're so desperate to have their freedom of speech heard that they're self-immolating. I want to know where the outrage is in this country about their freedom of speech and the freedom of whistleblowers - the doctors, the teachers - who are speaking out against this atrocity. This international atrocity."