Jaw-dropping moment Home Affairs minister admits she 'doesn't know' four child sex offenders released from immigration detention are on the streets without tracking bracelets

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has admitted on breakfast television she didn't know whether four asylum seeker sex offenders released onto the streets by the High Court were wearing tracking braclets. 

Ms O'Neil struggled to answer whether sex offenders released from immigration detention were wearing ankle bracelets more than 18 hours after the WA Police Commissioner confirmed four offenders in his state weren't fitted with the devices. 

The Today Show's Karl Stefanovic asked the minister whether detainees were wearing ankle monitoring bracelets or if the devices were still being rolled out. 

'I certainly know that many people have had those curfews and ankle monitoring bracelets rolled out. If I could just explain to your viewers, Minister Giles is required under law to consider each of these cases on an individual basis,' she said. 

Ms O'Neil's blunder came after Police Commissioner Col Blanch spoke on local radio  about the lack of tracking before 3pm on Monday.

Five asylum seekers were released from Yongah Hill Immigration Detention - taking the total in WA to 39. Eight of those were convicted of child sex offences.

Four have since left WA, with police revealing they are unable to track the four remaining sex offenders and keep up with their whereabouts. 

'The four in WA are not under GPS tracking so we don't have the authority to (put them on),' Commissioner Blanch told local radio. 

'But we will do home visits (and ask) what phone do you have, what computers are you using? We want you to check in with us all the time.

'They are under the most stringent conditions. If they fail any of those, we arrest them and we charge them with breaching their reportable conditions.

'We can go and knock on their door any day or night and make sure they are abiding by those conditions. I can guarantee we are monitoring these people with the highest level under our current regime of reportable offenders.'

Despite emergency laws rushed through parliament that will require former detainees to wear ankle monitors, there is still no sign of the devices in WA. 

Commissioner Blanch said his officers didn't have the authority to track the other detainees as they were 'lawfully in the community'. 

'The WA Police's responsibility is the reportable offenders - the child sex offenders. Everyone else is the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force,' he said.     

Karl Stefanovic took aim at the government for not being prepared for the High Court decision, however Ms O'Neil said she 'vehemently disagreed'. 

'What I saw was an Australian government set up an entirely new community safety regime, set up a joint police operation, set up an entirely new visa system within one week and one day of a high court decision,' she told the host. 

'Now I have been in parliament for more than a decade. I have never seen a government respond to a constitutional decision at this pace.'

Ms O'Neil said it was 'highly unlikely' the entire cohort of 340 people who have been in immigration detention for longer than a year would be released. 

'Well, you don't know because the High Court makes the decision,' Stefanovic quipped.

'Well, Karl, I think you would understand that we have a legal system in this country where as a minister, I get to make laws, I get to make decisions,' she replied. 

'But ultimately, the High Court of our country is the only body that gets to decide what is the meaning of the Australian Constitution. 

'The High Court has given us an absolute direction that we must proceed with this.'

NSW Attorney General Michael Daley also failed to answer if detainees in his state were wearing ankle bracelets when he was quizzed by 2GB's Mark Levy. 

'That's a federal matter, I haven't had briefing on that,' Mr Daley replied.

'I trust that the authorities at a state and federal level would do a very, very good job tracking offenders. We have detainees in NSW coming out of the NSW prison system that are surveilled by corrections officers and they do a terrific job.'

'Your telling me that the Attorney General, the top law-maker in NSW, has not been briefed by his federal counterparts,' Levy quipped. 

'No, that would be a matter for police and corrections to deal with that. The Attorney General doesn't deal with surveillance of people on the streets once they've been through the court system,' Mr Daley said.   

'How do we know we don't have violent criminals on the streets of Sydney without tracking devices on them?' the radio host asked. 

'I'm generally responsible for what happens up until conviction and then it moves through the courts to another department, and it's not mine,' Mr Daley said. 

'I have every confidence that the state and federal authorities, the police, are talking to each other on a day-to-day basis so that they can surveil these people. 

'This happens every day, when offenders are released under supervision and the police do a very, very good job of tracking them.'

Some 93 detainees have been released since the High Court ruled it was unlawful to keep them locked up in detention indefinitely on November 8. 

Some of those have committed serious violent and sexual offences against women and children along with high-profile organised crime and gang-related figures.

Another 250 immigration detainees, including some who have done 'deplorable and disgusting things', could be released into the community next year.

Following the High Court ruling the government rushed through legislation to place strict visa restrictions on those being freed including wearing electronic monitoring ankle bracelets or other such devices.