Labor offended by Bandt's burning quip

Federal Labor has taken offence to the way a Greens MP has described a bipartisan border protection policy that he claimed results in people not drowning but burning.

Adam Bandt was forced to withdraw the remark in parliament's question time on Wednesday after he asked Immigration Minister Peter Dutton about two self-harm incidents on Nauru, one of which resulted in the death of an Iranian asylum seeker.

"That is deeply offensive to all members of the (lower house)," Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said in making a point of order.