Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has told Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs to stand for office or give up on her attempts to raise the issue of children held in immigration detention.

Appearing on the ABC’s Q&A panel on Monday night, Ms Bishop threw down the gauntlet to Ms Triggs over a report that criticised the government’s immigration regime.

Ms Bishop suggested that by allegedly delaying a report into the treatment of child asylum seekers until the Liberals took power, Ms Triggs had “made it very political”.

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“It has made you a very political figure. Therefore, you are subject to criticism,” Ms Bishop said.

“You have to make the decision: are you a statutory officer carrying out an obligation with the protection of that office or do you wish to be a political participant?

“If you do wish to be a political participant, then you have to be no longer a statutory officer and perhaps stand for office.”

.@GillianTriggs on the legality of turning back boats, of bribing people smugglers & transparency #QandA http://t.co/8jSPf47kxX

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) June 15, 2015

But Ms Triggs deftly deflected the criticism, saying her record speaks for itself.

“I have been meeting my statutory obligations, indeed were I to receive frequent praise and commendation from the Government, I think the Australian people would have a good reason to ask for my resignation,” she said.

By the Magna Carta

With the Magna Carta represented on the show, which was filmed at Parliament House, the two women battled over the proposal to unilaterally strip the citizenship of terrorists.

Gillian Triggs was a master at the debating crease. Photo: ABC

Phillip Bailey, a lawyer in the audience, asked why we needed new laws to stop terrorism, when existing laws do the job.

“Many forms of this criminal law infringe on existing legal principles such as habeas corpus and freedom of association,” he said.

That allowed Ms Triggs to hit another boundary, judging by the audience applause.

“What we are seeing in recent years … is a willingness to pass laws that really are much more extreme than we need and where you have got a collusion really of both major parties to allow the executive these increased powers,” she said.

“The role of parliament in protecting freedoms is being diminished and indeed also so too are the powers of the judiciary to review the decisions of ministers.”

Gillian Triggs nobly refrains from slamming a stiletto heel between Bronny’s eyes…does it verbally instead #qanda — Mike Carlton (@MikeCarlton01) June 15, 2015

Ms Bishop had her say, and delivered the first instance of the call to stand for public office.

Bronwyn Bishop was on the attack. Photo: ABC

“I disagree with a lot of what Gillian had to say. The first duty is to look after the people. We are answerable to the people at the ballot box,” she said.

“There is a time, and I think Gillian recognises it, when you’re a statutory officer you then have to decide whether you’re a statutory officer fulfilling that role with security of tenure or whether you wish to say I want to be part of the political debate and stand for office and run and become part of that political process,” she said.

The debate made a valiant effort to address the thorny issue of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people, and Cape York Institute chairman Noel Pearson was looked on for his answer.

“Ancient Australia needs to have a voice in this parliament. To this parliament,” he said.

Noel Pearson is a fan of stopping the boats. Photo: ABC

But the topic was swept aside when the debate returned to the perennial issues of asylum seekers.

One Afghan man in the audience gave a short history of his three-year journey through immigration detention.

Mr Pearson responded with praise for the Abbott government’s plan to stop the boats, which Ms Bishop said had reduced the number of children in detention to about 200.

“I am kind of sympathetic to that result. I really like the idea of children not being on the high seas and I like the idea of cutting down the number of children in detention,” Mr Pearson said.