Commission President Professor Triggs said it was an attempt to come up with positive ideas that allowed Australia to defend its national borders in a humane way.
"There are more imaginative ways in which we could establish legal avenues of coming to Australia and making a claim for asylum, (rather) than, in a sense, leaving it open to people in absolute despair to use illegal methods of arriving through people-smuggling," Professor Triggs told SBS.
"We are suggesting that there are much more diplomatic and collaborative ways of doing it in our region that would deliver the results."
An increase to Australia's refugee intake and an Asia-Pacific regional plan for permanent resettlement were central to the proposals.
The report also suggested restoring or increasing aid to countries that refugees are fleeing.
While it recommended dismantling the detention centres on Nauru and Manus, some form of offshore processing would remain.
Professor Triggs said the commission has long argued offshore processing itself is not illegal.
But she said asylum seekers should not be held indefinitely on remote islands where there was no real prospect of permanent resettlement.
"It may very well be that (we could) rescue people at sea, for example, and take them to an agreed island, perhaps in collaboration with Malaysia and Indonesia," she said.
Professor Triggs said people could have health, security and identity checks.
Then if they were deemed to be refugees under international law, they would be resettled somewhere in the region.
"It is the current means by which offshore processing is conducted that is our primary concern," she said.
Australia would also be encouraged to reintroduce temporary visas, with a category that allowed people to travel to Australia by air for the purpose of seeking asylum.
The commission said there could also be a private and community sponsorship scheme.
Professor Triggs said addressing barriers to skilled and family migration could be part of the solution as well.
"It might be that it would be possible to apply for a visa to arrive in Australia legally and to claim asylum on arrival," she said.
"It might be that we could have rather more generous approaches to family reunions, that we could even have study scholarships for people who are at risk, young people," she said.
There was praise for the proposal from the organisation that advocates directly for removing children from detention, Chilout.
Chilout's Therese Cochrane said the suggestion of increasing family-reunion visas was particularly welcome.
"Family reunion is a very important policy to offer people," Ms Cochrane told SBS.
By offering family reunion, you're keeping the family unit together, and they're going to be far more productive members of society if they're within their family unit."
Professor Triggs has put the Commission's recommendations to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and the federal opposition.
