Look how the ABC reported the inquiry to make it sound like Morrison was on the backfoot and embarrassed by the prison comparison. I was watching and the opposite is true. Triggs was floundering and stuck for words before she admitted the detention centres weren't equivalent to prisons. She was also shown to be making it up when she said there were armed guards.
Commission president Gillian Triggs told the inquiry she saw little difference between locked detention and a prison.
"I have been a practising lawyer since I was 22 years old and I have been to many prisons. I know a prison when I see it," she said.
Mr Morrison questioned the comparison.
"You've been in prisons, so you are telling me that the Phosphate Hill compound on Christmas Island is the same as Long Bay jail?" he asked.
"I'm not saying they are equivalent," Ms Triggs responded.
Mr Morrison then shut down the line of questioning, saying: "We can move on, Madam President."
