She yesterday gave a hard-hitting talk focusing on ''Detention Centres and Public Accountability?'' at the University of Otago's 52nd annual Foreign Policy School.
Some detainees had died, and others experienced ''very serious health problems'' while being held in offshore centres.
Detainees who had been fleeing torture and rape had in some cases experienced further torture and sexual assaults while being held at the centres.
She urged New Zealanders to speak up over a ''denial'' of human rights and ''continuing abuses'' of human rights among the refugees and asylum seekers.
The former Australian Labour Government had previously reopened detention centres on Manus and Nauru for asylum seekers arriving by boat.
Since the Liberal/National Party coalition government was elected in 2013, the policy of ''forced exclusion of boat arrivals'' had continued, ''despite evidence of abuse, distress and poor health''.
Her talk highlighted ''Australia's policy of forced exclusion of selected asylum seekers'' and was given at St Margaret's College, Dunedin, on the final day of the three-day school.
The Turnbull government recently agreed to pay $70 million in damages to more than 1900 Manus detainees in a class action for physical and mental injuries received at the centre.
Australian officials want many of the Manus Island refugees to go to the United States under a previously negotiated agreement but said the New Zealand offer remained ''on the table''.
The latest Otago school was devoted to ''Open and Closed Borders: The Geopolitics of Migration''.
Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking, Andrew Goledzinowski, earlier gave a talk on Australia's efforts to counter people smuggling and human trafficking through the regional collaborative ''Bali Process''.
Later, responding to Ms Bacon's talk, he said the Australian government wanted to resolve the problems faced by people at the Manus Island facility but ''very few countries'' were prepared to offer resettlement options.
The situation was difficult and part of the challenge was avoiding any indirect encouragement to people smugglers to put more innocent lives at risk.
•Ms Bacon is the co-author of a report on the detention of women asylum seekers on Nauru.
