The Royal Commission into child sex abuse may hold a public hearing into Australia's detention centres in the wake of fresh allegations from Nauru, signalling that more shocking revelations from the offshore camp may emerge to damage the Turnbull government.
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The release by Guardian Australia last week of 2000 incident reports detailing trauma, abuse and self-harm suffered at Nauru, many involving children, led to calls for the Royal Commission to widen its inquiry to include the remote Pacific island.
The government sought to play down the incident reports, saying they were allegations rather than fact. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed some reports were not legitimate and others covered minor events.
In a rare statement on Monday, the commission responded to "the level of public discussion in relation to immigration detention centres", saying it had an ongoing investigation into how the Department of Immigration and Border Protection responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in detention centres.
"Whether or not a public hearing is warranted has not been determined," the statement said.
It said a child protection panel was established by the department in May last year, a final report from which will be provided to the department's secretary, Michael Pezzullo, by mid-2016.
Comment has been sought from the department on whether the report has been delivered.
The commission said the report would cover "both better practice and a comprehensive sample of reviews" and would likely deal with the department's response to allegations of child abuse in detention centres.
"The Royal Commission will have regard to that report in the course of its investigation into immigration detention issues," the statement said.
The commission has previously said that investigating alleged child abuse on Nauru or Manus Island is outside its jurisdictional powers.
But in May last year it demanded immigration authorities hand over a series of documents, which prompted speculation that Australia's detention centres may yet become a target of the inquiry.
In a speech on Monday, the royal commission's chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, argued that respect for trusted institutions in Australian society should never override reports of danger to young people, however he did not directly cite immigration detention abuse allegations.
