Opposition calls AFP over government corruption allegations

Shadow Attorney General Marky Dreyfus has asked the AFP to investigate claims the Abbott government violated the criminal code by offering Professor Gillian Triggs an incentive to resign as president of the Human Rights Commission.

The moves comes after Prof Triggs was heavily criticised by Mr Abbott and Attorney General George Brandis over the publication of a damning report into the current and former governments' approaches to children in detention, the Sydney Morning Herald reports .

The PM said the government had lost confidence in Prof Triggs and called her report a " political stitch up".

The secretary of the Attorney-General's department, Chris Moraitis, yesterday confirmed to a Senate committee that Prof Triggs was told a senior role would be available if she resigned from the Human Rights Commission.

Mr Moraitis denied there was a link between Prof Triggs' resignation and the offer of a job, saying that he did not see the offer as "an inducement" and did not use the word "resignation" during their February 3 meeting.

However, under intense questioning from Labor and Greens senators admitted that "one would flow from the other".

The Greens immigration spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson Young told the committee "It sounds like a bribe, it smells like a bribe. What we're trying to work out is whether it is."

"This is an extremely serious case. If a position was offered, as an inducement to encourage the president to resign, that would be a clear breach of the Criminal Code," she said.

"The government is obsessed with shutting down dissent and, this time, may have gone too far."

Mr Dreyfus has asked the AFP to investigate the offer saying it may "constitute corrupt and unlawful conduct".

He has requested the matter be investigated urgently and potentially referred to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions.

The Greens will also call for the matter to be investigated.