While security has been tightened in the wake of a bloody brawl on Christmas Island while the Rudd government faces more questions over its border protection policy and a deal offered to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
The Immigration Department and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) will investigate the brawl between 150 Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers housed in the crammed Christmas Island detention centre.
More than 40 people were injured, including a number of guards, and three seriously injured asylum seekers were flown to Perth for treatment.
Meanwhile, the Afghan and Sri Lankan detainee groups have been separated.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said it is not clear what triggered the violence, but conceded tensions at the centre had been running high.
Senator Evans also suggested the removal by force of a group of Sri Lankan men about two weeks ago may have heightened the tension.
Those men, who had been involved in a dramatic eight-hour protest last month, were flown back to Colombo on a charter flight after their claims for asylum were rejected.
"So there was a degree of anxiety in the centre as a result of those decisions and some other unfavourable decisions that went against those seeking asylum," Senator Evans told parliament on Monday.
"That was an underlying current inside the detention centre, and no doubt the interception of various boats may have added to that. But I'm not sure of the exact causes.
"Clearly though, security at the centre will be tightened to ensure we don't have any incidents like this again."
Tensions have also been running high among Christmas Island locals over the steady influx of asylum seekers and their effect on the island's economy.
Christmas Island Shire president Gordon Thomson is to have discussions with Senator Evans on Tuesday.
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone says detainees are unhappy with the different ways some asylum seekers are treated.
A group of 78 Tamils, the last to end the month-long stand-off aboard the Oceanic Viking last week, were offered a deal which could see some of them resettled in Australia in as little as a month. At present they remain in detention in Indonesia.
"They're the stories that are leaking out, that the Afghans and Sri Lankans feel very aggrieved that there are different scenarios," Dr Stone told AAP.
She said it was also clear that overcrowding had contributed to the weekend violence.
"But I'm very concerned that this sounds like a breakdown in internal security."
The trouble between the Afghans and Sri Lankans, who armed themselves with broom handles, pool cues and tree branches, erupted about 6.30pm on Saturday.
Detention centre staff moved in quickly but it took them 30 minutes restore order.
There are currently 1,118 asylum seekers in the detention centre which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says is designed for 1,400.
An Australian naval vessel intercepted another boat carrying 56 suspected asylum seekers and two crew off Australia's northwest coast on Monday.
It is the 46th asylum seeker boat intercepted in Australian waters this year and the second in as many days.
In federal parliament, the opposition continued to pepper Mr Rudd with questions on his border protection regime and the deal given to the Oceanic Viking asylum seekers.
During question time, deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop asked Mr Rudd if he had "directly approached" any other countries about resettling the group.
"The answer to (her) question is no, I've made no such approach," Mr Rudd replied.
"Individual countries are approached through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for assistance," he added.
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