Deadline pushed out for Gladstone review

An independent panel investigating a leaking wall designed to keep toxic material out of Gladstone Harbour has been given another month to report its findings.

The federal government in January announced a review into whether it was a failure of design or construction that saw the protective bund wall at Queensland's Gladstone port leak in 2011 and 2012.

Due to the amount of material to be reviewed and the background work required, Environment Minister Greg Hunt has pushed out the reporting deadline to the end of April.

"Carrying out the review promptly is important, but what's more important is getting it right," he said in a statement on Monday.

The wall was designed to hold 25 million tonnes of dredged soil, and environment groups claim the leak caused dangerous chemicals to leach into the harbour, affecting marine life in the area.