Abbott 'lost confidence' in rights chief after report

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that he had lost confidence in the head of the nation's Human Rights Commission, calling a report criticizing the detention of asylum-seeker children a "political stitch-up".

The government-funded commission, which released the study earlier this month, said its 10-month investigation of 11 detention centers found widespread sexual assault, self-harm and severe mental disorders among children locked up.

Abbott told Parliament that the report should have been released when the previous Labor government was in power, as more children were held in detention at that time. His conservative government took office in September 2013.