Wilderness Society federal policy director Tim Beshara said executive change at the Department of Environment and Energy was needed to restore public confidence.

It follows reports the department asked the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia to give formal assurances to the government that Adani's environment commitments for its Carmichael mine were up to scratch.

Geoscience Australia released notes to ABC News on a meeting between it, the CSIRO and the department where the department asked the scientific groups to release "formal assurances" that Adani's Carmichael mine met environmental obligations despite their concerns."

Geoscience Australia chief Dr James Johnson's handwritten notes of the meeting say "gov [sic] is keen for assurance".

The letters later released from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia said the department's "extensive briefing" addressed their concerns.

The day after the meeting, federal environment minister Melissa Price gave Commonwealth approval to the controversial mining project.

Mr Beshara said a "cultural change that comes from the top" was required.

"Our primary concern is with the Government itself, but it's also not clear here to us whether department senior executives have given the sort of frank and fearless advice to the Government that the public would expect," Mr Beshara said.

He said the department's charter had seemingly shifted from applying the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to helping industry minimise their interaction with it.

Mr Beshara said the foundation continued to call for the independent Environmental Protection Agency to give approvals "at arms-length from the political process".

Australian Conservation Foundation anti-Adani campaigner Christian Slattery said the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia were clearly asked to provide formal assurances on the Carmichael mine by the department "on instruction from the minister".

"This does raise a lot of red flags about the role of the department in seemingly smoothing over the process for Adani," Mr Slattery said.

"Not just Adani but also to assist the minister's political interests."

Mr Slattery pointed to Geoscience Australia's February report that Adani's groundwater modelling for its mine was not fit for purpose.

"The department's solution was to defer Adani rerunning the models until two years after mining commences," he said.

Mr Slattery said this wasn't the first time questions had been raised about the department's executives.

He pointed to lobbying by Queensland MPs to the department to approve plans to bulldoze 2000 hectares of Queensland native forest at Kingvale station, located inside a water catchment for the Great Barrier Reef.

Likewise, the department's decision to green light a waterfront development over an internationally recognised Queensland wetland in Toondah Harbour despite its own senior staff recommending the proposal be struck out.

The department was contacted for comment and referred The Canberra Times to a timeline of its approval for the Carmichael mine.

Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that only the Wilderness Foundation has called for cultural change.