Qld pushes for rural bank royal commission

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt is pushing for federal Labor to broaden the scope of its promised banking royal commission to include problems surrounding rural landholders.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten last month promised Labor would hold a royal commission into banks if it won the upcoming federal election.

A key recommendation of Queensland's Rural Debt and Drought Taskforce report, handed down Monday, is for the state government to initiate a royal commission to investigate alleged financial misconduct of banks detailed in taskforce hearings.

It was one of 14 recommendations made to help struggling farmers and rural landholders.

Mr Pitt said the Palaszczuk government would consider the recommendations, but stated he'd already asked federal Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen to consider including the rural concerns in the promised overarching royal commission.

"I've had a brief conversation with the shadow treasurer about whether that scope could also be extended to include something to do with rural debt and the way banks have managed rural landholders," he said.

"I think that is something that could be in the scope - we will have further discussions about that."

The taskforce, chaired by Katter's Australian Party MP Rob Katter, also called for a rural and industries development bank to offer loans for businesses along the supply chain and a farm debt reconstruction authority to address untenable financial arrangements.

Mr Katter said the ideas weren't new and wouldn't be expensive to implement.

"We can all sit here and do nothing and put our heads in the sand and pretend there's no problem and let these families continue to exit these towns," Mr Katter said.

"Or we can choose to get some economic benefit and see that the good times are about to come and we just need to get to that."