As a result of those failures, 21 Queensland coal miners have been diagnosed with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) - or black lung - a parliamentary committee has found.

And many more coal miners were likely to be diagnosed with the disease in the future, with significant reform urgently needed.

The damning findings were delivered in a report into the "re-identification" of black lung in Queensland, named Black Lung White Lies.

Black lung was thought eradicated in the 1980s, but the parliamentary inquiry found that instead it had dropped off the radar, in part because no one was looking for it.

The report says there was a catastrophic failure of the regulatory system designed to protect the health of coal miners and an independent regulator was needed, with substantial structural change necessary.

It says the Department of Natural Resources and Mines' attempts to improve the system within the current regulatory structure were inadequate, and the responsibility for overseeing the health of workers should not rest with the body charged with promoting and supporting the industry.

The committee was "deeply disturbed" by the evidence uncovered in relation to the Health Surveillance Unit, which reports to the executive director of Mine Safety and Health within DNRM.

"From its establishment, the HSU failed to undertake any actual health surveillance. It served as nothing more than a storage unit for miners' chest X-rays and health records," the report reads.

"The responsibility for identifying problems, errors or trends in coal miners' health assessments was left entirely to the relevant mine operator, its NMA, and the individual mine worker."

The HSU was also understaffed, had 10 years of health records to process by 2015, and many records were stored in a janitor's cupboard next to the toilets and in shipping containers, causing many to become unreadable.

The committee was also frustrated with the cooperation from some officers of DNRM - it recommended the transcripts of public and private hearings involving public servants be reviewed by the Public Service Commissioner to consider whether they misled the committee or breached the code of practice.

???"Frequently senior officers have been unprepared and unable to answer important questions relevant to the committee's inquiry and where answers were given, often the officers were argumentative and resistant to acknowledging the wide-ranging failings of their department," the report read.

"This appears to be a reflection of a culture and attitude that has built up over 30 years."

It also recommended a Committee on Public Administration be set up to investigate matters of public administration, after it said there were "widespread administrative failings".

The committee also heard evidence there were significant failings in the workers' compensation scheme for workers diagnosed with or concerned about the disease.

In open cut environments, dust risks appeared to be neglected because of a false assumption that only underground workers could contract CWP.

Some mine workers told the Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis Select Committee about coughing up black mucus for years after working in the coal industry.

Early detection of asymptomatic CWP is vital so they can be removed from exposure to dust and their possibility of developing complex CWP is reduced.

"Tragically, many sufferers of CWP continued to work in dusty conditions while their condition remained unidentified," the report reads.

"A diagnosis may be easily missed, or assumptions made that the loss of function associated with CWP is due to reduced fitness, age or lifestyle factors such [as] smoking.

"It remains unknown how many deaths have been wrongly attributed to lung diseases other than CWP."

The report made 68 recommendations to raise the level of oversight, compliance and transparency including the establishment of a new independent authority, the Mine Safety and Health Authority.

The report also recommended a portion of coal and mineral royalties be provided to the state to fund the authority and its health and safety activities and called for the immediate reduction of the current Queensland occupational exposure limit for respirable coal dust and silica, to become the lowest in Australia.

The committee's work exposed "catastrophic failings in public administration in Queensland", chair Jo-Ann Miller and deputy chair Lawrence Springborg wrote in the report.

"The committee received harrowing evidence from workers and their families resulting in tears from some of the toughest of coal miners and their partners, workmates, neighbours and friends," they wrote.

"As a committee, we too shed tears of sorrow, disbelief and anger, because the system let down these men and women of The Deep."

Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham said the government would respond to the committee's report within the 90-day time frame.

Dr Lynham said the government did not wait to act until the report was tabled, with work including double reading of chest X-rays and training programs for doctors.

He said his department had been "absolutely solid" in eliminating CWP from the workforce.

"The committee doesn't see my department as I see my department. I see hardworking public servants absolutely committed to eliminating this insidious disorder," he said.

In March, the committee was granted additional terms of reference to examine other work forces and gave it the power to draft legislation.

The committee will report on its new terms of reference - covering occupational respiratory dust exposure for coal port workers, coal rail workers, coal fired power station workers and other industries - by September 29.