Senator Doug Cameron, Labour's Left, has urged the Australian government to "pedal harder" in processing asylum seekers to help ease budding tensions in detention centres.

Cameron's call came as the Refugee Council of Australia reported a 1,400 percent rise in long-term detention since last year.

Refugee Council CEO Paul Power revealed that immigration detainees in the center expanded by 196% over a year ago, while people detained for more than six months grew seven times larger from 258 in March 2010 to 3901 in March this year.

Cameron said that while he back the government's policy of tougher measures to deal against people who commit offences while detained in the centres, most of the problems can be traced to the slow processing of the refugees thus entailing longer time in detention.

The government said it is already doing all its can to fast track the processing. However, Cameron called on Immigration Minister Chris Bowen needed to ''pedal faster''. After security checks were completed, much of the processing could be done when people were in the community, where charitable and community groups would help the asylum seekers, he said.