Nat Barr loses it at Anthony Albanese during heated clash on Sunrise: 'Surely that's a failure'

Nat Barr has blasted Anthony Albanese after a freed immigration detainee allegedly bashed an elderly woman in a horror home invasion.

Ninette Simmons, 73, and her husband Phillip, 76, were left bruised and shaken after three men allegedly assaulted them and stole jewellery from their Perth home.

One of the alleged perpetrators, 43-year-old Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, is part of a cohort of immigration detainees at the centre of a federal political fight.

The Sunrise host questioned how the government's Community Protection Board had failed to recommend the freed detainee wear an ankle monitoring device.

Despite prosecutors warning Mr Doukoshkan that he was likely to re-offend and had issues with compliance, the board ruled he shouldn't have to wear the bracelet.

'Commonwealth prosecutors apparently did not oppose bail in that circumstance in Perth. Your own government board did not recommend an ankle bracelet,' Barr said.

Barr asked Mr Albanese if Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil would be sacked over the debacle.

The prime minister simply stated 'no' and said the decision had been out of his hands.

'Nat, in this country we have a separation of the judicial system from the political system. But if it was up to me I assure you that there wouldn't have been bail granted in that case,' Mr Albanese replied.

'But these things are done independently by the Director of Public prosecutions.'

Barr fired back: 'But it wasn't opposed.'

'That wasn't a decision by government Nat,' the PM rebutted.

'I'm just as upset about that decision as you are, I think it that lacks common sense.

'That is one of the things, no doubt, that will be on the agenda today at the meeting of the attorney-generals, that will be chaired by Mark Dreyfus in Canberra, bringing together all the states and territories to look at bail laws, to look at these issues.'

Barr pushed the prime minister to accept responsibility for the failure. 

'If you've got a board that you guys appointed that is saying this person doesn't need an ankle bracelet, surely that's a failure?' she said. 

'Yes, it is. I think that's a wrong decision by that board,' Mr Albanese replied.

Nat interrupted: [A board] that you appointed, so who is responsible for that?' 

'They make the decisions independent,' Mr Albanese continued. 

'One of the things that we have in this country is a separation there and the whole NZYQ case was something we opposed, that decision of the High Court. The government has had to deal with implications of that and the results of that. 

'We have been trying to do that. We've brought in a range of laws. We have a law before the Senate now that we wanted to pass in March when Parliament was sitting and that's been held up with another inquiry by a Coalition of the Liberals and Greens,' Mr Albanese explained.

'So we want to take as strong an action as possible here. We recognise that community safety is the absolute priority. 

'My heart goes out to Ninette. No one should be subject to that sort of violence. It is an outrage that this occurred.'

Mr Doukoshkan was one of 154 men released from immigration detention in November after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful.

On Thursday, Barr asked Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil why released detainee Jamshidi Doukoshkan hadn't been wearing an ankle monitoring device.

Ms O'Neil dodged the question, saying that she couldn't comment and potentially interrupt criminal proceedings against the man.

'So one of the layers of protection that we have in place, Nat, is a group of very experienced law enforcement officials who make decisions about how people will be monitored in the community,' she said.

Barr fired back, asking a question in the minds of many Australians.

'Aren't you responsible for the Community Protection Board that makes those decisions?

'And they did not give him an ankle bracelet?

'Do you think people feel safe out there,' Barr asked.

Ms O'Neil dodged the question again: 'Well, I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the case.'