The Australian government's woes deepened Wednesday after police said they were looking into claims a senior official broke the law by allegedly offering an inducement for the Human Rights Commission chief to resign.

The president of the government-funded commission, Gillian Triggs, has been under heavy fire from Tony Abbott's conservative administration since releasing a report this month criticizing the detention of asylum-seeker children.

An Indonesian court on Tuesday dismissed a bid by two Australian drug traffickers on death row to avoid execution by challenging the president's rejection of their pleas for clemency.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug smuggling gang, were arrested for trying to traffic heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year.

Australia stayed silent on alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka in exchange for cooperation in cracking down on people-smuggling, Colombo's new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Monday.

Wickremesinghe said former president Mahinda Rajapakse had agreed to help stop boats carrying asylum-seekers leaving for Australia if Canberra kept quiet about alleged abuses committed by the previous regime. 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Monday of a long era of heightened threats from "home-grown" extremists and announced new security measures including revoking citizenship for dual-nationals linked to terrorism.

Canberra raised its threat level to high in September and has since carried out a series of raids, with alarm fueled by the departure of at least 110 of its nationals to Iraq and Syria to fight with the Islamic State group. More than 30 have returned to Australia.

Two Australians on death row appealed to Indonesian president Joko Widodo on Sunday to let them live so they can continue helping fellow prisoners in a rehabilitation program, their brothers said.

The kin of drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan made a statement to the media after visiting the pair in Kerobokan prison on Bali island. 

Australian officials said Sunday all efforts were being made to help those hit by Tropical Cyclone Marcia, which smashed through Queensland state leaving 1,500 homes damaged and thousands without electricity.

Marcia was one of two fierce cyclones which hit northern Australia within hours on Friday. The first, Tropical Cyclone Lam, hit remote communities in the Northern Territory near Elcho Island, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Darwin.

Australia was clearing up Saturday after two severe cyclones left a trail of destruction, wrecking hundreds of homes and cutting electricity to tens of thousands, even as authorities warned of more flooding and gusty winds to come.

Tropical Cyclone Marcia barreled through the northeastern state of Queensland Friday at the highest-rated category five, ripping apart houses, uprooting trees and bringing down power lines.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called on Indonesia to give two Australians on death row an "indefinite stay of execution" as she clarified her Prime Minister's comments linking their fate to aid, media reports said Saturday.

Tensions between the two nations have grown after Indonesia confirmed Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine heroin trafficking group, were among the next group of prisoners to face the firing squad.

Australia on Friday said France, Germany and Japan were potential partners to design and build its next generation of submarines, in what will be its biggest ever defense procurement program.

As Canberra seeks to replace its ageing Collins Class fleet, Defense Minister Kevin Andrews said all three countries had proven military design and build capabilities and were currently producing submarines.

Indonesia has delayed the execution of two Australian drug smugglers by up to a month, backtracking on an earlier pledge to put the pair before the firing squad by the end of February.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla's office Friday said the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin trafficking group, "will be delayed for between three weeks to a month from now due to technical reasons," without elaborating further.