The Daily Telegraph has blown an opportunity to tell its readers the reality of what happens when asylum seekers are released into the community, the Australian Greens said today.

"Last year the paper showed the dangers asylum seekers faced under the Malaysian solution, but this year it has given a false picture of community release programs here on shore," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

"That's a real disappointment because there are so many myths about asylum seekers which continue to be perpetuated.

The Greens have today introduced into the Senate a bill to amend the Migration Act to restore judicial discretion to the courts in deciding sentences for convicted people smugglers.

"The Greens have tabled this bill because the government's much-hyped mantra of being tough on people smugglers is not working and is instead leading to injustice," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

"While people smuggling must be tackled, the government continues to punish only the little fish and never the kingpins that actually control the syndicates.

The Greens will next month table a bill in parliament to remove mandatory sentencing provisions from the Migration Act and restore judicial discretion to the courts in deciding sentences for convicted people smugglers.

"Nearly two years ago, the Greens and the legal community warned mandatory sentences would not punish the people smuggling kingpins, only the pawns," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

The Attorney General should urgently revise Australia's mandatory sentencing for people smuggling convictions which fails to punish the real culprits after a Brisbane court today jailed an impoverished Indonesian fisherman for five years, the Australian Greens said.

"Judge Martin said the mandatory sentence did not let the court consider the facts in the case, including that the illiterate Indonesian was exploited by the organisers of people smuggling syndicates," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

The remarks by Teresa Gambaro that migrants, including those on temporary visas, need compulsory training about hygiene are unhelpful, the Australian Greens said today.

"By all means, inform migrants about how they can access services in Australia or how our legal system works," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

"But focusing on body odour is blatant dog whistling from the Coalition.

The sight of the two big parties exchanging and releasing letters on Tuesday was a performance that gave little hope for a sensible, humane or long-term response to the complex humanitarian issue of asylum seekers.

Australia receives around 2% of asylum applications to industrialised nations - over six months we receive equivalent numbers of unauthorised arrivals that Italy receives in one weekend. Yet political consideration of asylum policy is so warped our leaders were reduced to bickering like note-passing schoolchildren.