A Senate inquiry has picked apart moves by the Queensland Government under former premier Campbell Newman.

An official report this week has called for an overhaul of the state’s corruption watchdog, while investigations continue into the actions of the current head of the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).

A Senate inquiry triggered by the Palmer United Party investigated the government under Mr Newman, and made a number of bold calls about the style of governance at the time.

A report on the proceedings has now been released (available here in PDF form), bringing with it a number of recommendations.

They include calls for a new corruption watchdog to be set up, replacing the current Crime and Corruption Commission with a version modelled on NSW’s ICAC.

Submissions to the hearing argued that the CCC is too limited and selective in its investigations.

The report says that the ICAC model is more preferable, as its jurisdiction extends to all NSW public sector agencies and employees, except the police force, including government departments, local councils, members of state parliament, ministers, the judiciary and the governor.

The Lock the Gate Alliance argued that the CCC failed to investigate legal flaws in the approval of CSG projects in Queensland by “claiming that health and environmental ‘policy’ matters were outside their jurisdiction”.

Coal seam gas whistleblower Simone Marsh said the CCC purposely ignored complaints about industries that the government supported, such as CSG extraction.

“At some stage they have decided they did not want to investigate environmental law matters. They did not tell us until seven months later,” she said.

The Senate committee recommended that the new Queensland Government review decisions made by the Newman Government in relation to the approval of mining leases and other projects called in by the Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning.

It found that environmental and planning laws, and decisions reached by Local Government, had “been ignored and disregarded”.

It said the should be investigations into “potential conflicts of interest [that] may have occurred and... [if] political donations to the Liberal National Party were involved in some way”

The committee wants the corruption watchdog to look at “the issue of the extension of the sand mining lease on Stradbroke Island and any issues relating to political donations and election spending by Sibelco.”

“The committee recommends that the Federal Minister for the Environment declare a moratorium on any new approvals of Coal Seam Gas until an investigation is completed and reports back to the Senate,” the findings stated.

“The report should address the effects of Coal Seam Gas mining activities in the Tara and Chinchilla areas on the health of local people, animals and crops, groundwater and on the quality of soil, water and air, and also investigate the disposal of effluent containing human faeces around mining camps, local roads and agricultural land used for growing crops for human consumption and the degradation of water reserves in these areas.”

“The committee recommends the Queensland government undertake an immediate review of the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and its resource capabilities including staffing levels, expertise, arms-length requirements and conflicts of interest.

“Further, the committee recommends a thorough review of the department to improve systems, processes, procedures, compliance, and escalation of issues, transparency and reporting.

“Ideally, an independent body should be established to manage escalated issues.”

The committee said that all approvals granted under the Newman Government should be re-assessed against stronger social justice/natural justice requirements and other land ownership rights.

The Senators accused the Newman Government of imposing “unjust and unfair limitations or requirements on land owners, particularly in relation to land use/access issues”.

The Labor members of the committee have told reporters that they do not back the recommendations to ban CSG fracking or introduce a moratorium on CSG.

LNP committee member Ian Macdonald says the process was blatantly political.