Triggs offered 'other work' if stood down

The Abbott government offered the head of the human rights watchdog other unspecified work in exchange for her resignation, a Senate committee had been told.

"I thought it was a disgraceful proposal," Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said on Tuesday.

"It was an entirely inappropriate offer to make."

The offer was made prior to the public release of a report based on the commission's inquiry into children in immigration detention.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott savaged the inquiry as a "blatantly partisan" exercise, because the inquiry was set up after the coalition government came to power in 2013.

The offer was conveyed to Prof Triggs by the head of the Attorney-General's Department, Chris Moraitis, on behalf of his minister George Brandis.

Prof Triggs told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra she was deeply shocked by the offer, but declined to say whether she saw it as an inducement to resign.

"I'd been a practising lawyer for 46 years, I've never had any suggestion of impropriety or work that was not of the appropriate standards."

Her potential resignation would have damaged the reputation of the commission and its independence, she said.