Australia's poor treatment of asylum seekers would likely result in a royal commission and compensation claims from military personnel forced to participate in border protection operations, influential Australian businesswoman Janet Holmes a Court says.

At a lecture in Hobart last night, Ms Holmes a Court - chair of Heytesbury, a major company with diverse interests including cattle and wine - accused successive Australian federal governments of deliberately treating asylum seekers badly in order to deter others.

Mrs Holmes a Court also attacked what she said was the Abbott Government's policy of deterrence and the suffering associated with it, especially on Nauru, saying it would have dire consequences for Australia.

She said there "was bound to be a royal commission, an eventual apology and a massive compensation payout ... both for those who had been mistreated, and the military personnel who'd been made to carry out the policy".

She said Australians would not be able to claim they did not know what had been going on.

Mrs Holmes a Court read out what she said were refugees' accounts of life on Nauru, detailing claims of mental and physical suffering and trauma.

She also said Australia had a track record when it came to mistreating dispossessed people.

She read out letters from Aboriginal people from Western Australia written on paper bearing Department of Wildlife and Fisheries letterhead.

That department administered WA Aboriginal communities until the 1950s.

She laid the blame for the mistreatment of "the others" on both sides of politics.

"The DNA thing ... I think we've always had this little nasty streak of fearing 'the others'," she said.

"It's both parties. We can't say 'Oh, we are proud of the Labor Party for supporting the asylum seekers and demanding they are looked after properly', cause they have been as weak as water in the whole thing."

Coalition policies saving lives: Immigration Minister Scott Morrison

Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, said the Coalition's policies were saving lives.

"The Government's strong border protection policies implemented under Operation Sovereign Borders are ... stopping the boats and restoring integrity to our refugee and humanitarian program," he said.

"The policies are also enabling the Government to close detention centres and get children out of detention centres.

"These policies are working where Labor's policies that caused cost, chaos and tragedy terribly failed."

Compensation claim possible over asylum seeker operations

Ms Holmes a Court told the audience she believed military personnel who had to carry out the policy could have grounds to claim compensation.

"It's not really acceptable that our military are being forced to do this work - it's not really the role of the military.

"There will be compensation [that has] to be paid sometime in the future to the military personnel being put through the trauma of having to behave in this way."