CMC chief sorry over Doomadgee delay

Queensland's anti-corruption chief has apologised over a delayed report into the police handling of an Aboriginal death in custody.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) has yet to release its report into the initial police investigation of the death of Cameron Doomadgee in the Palm Island watchhouse in November 2004.

CMC chairman Robert Needham conceded on Friday it was "not acceptable" that the report had not been finalised.

"I have to put my hands up and say 'that's not appropriate'," Mr Needham told reporters.

"We have problems with resources and I would like to have got that report out about six months ago."

He said the report would go to the police service and individual officers to enable them to comment on it before it would be released in the first quarter of 2010.

But he said it would not have taken so long if the CMC had been "totally happy" with the information provided by police.

Mr Needham said the report "is not going to be complimentary" of police.

Meanwhile, indigenous leaders are concerned old wounds will be opened with the restarting of an inquest into Mr Doomadgee's death.

Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley will be one of seven witnesses called to give evidence at the reopened inquest.

Sen Sgt Hurley was tried and acquitted in 2007 of the manslaughter of Mr Doomadgee.

At a briefing hearing in Townsville on Friday, the week-long inquest was set down to start on March 8, 2010, with hearings on Palm Island and in Townsville.

The inquest was called after the District Court last year set aside the 2006 findings of coroner Christine Clements that Sen Sgt Hurley killed Mr Doomadgee by punching him as he lay on the watchhouse floor.

The counsel assisting the inquest, Ralph Devlin, SC, said the reopened inquest would only revisit the crucial moments leading up to the discovery of Mr Doomadgee's body in his watchhouse cell on November 19, 2004.

Indigenous advocate Gracelyn Smallwood said supporters were feeling a sense of deja vu.

"It's going to open up a lot of old wounds again," she told AAP.

"Sitting here today thinking about what happened five years ago it's just feeling like it's happening again."

Other witnesses to be called include police officers Kristopher Steadman and Michael Leafe, police liaison officer Lloyd Bengaroo and Palm Island locals Lloyd Bramwell, Penny Sibley and Alfred Bonner.