Last month new Mining Minister Byron Chan generated fresh investment risk concerns by announcing a plan to shift resource ownership from the government to local landowner groups.

O'Neill previously downplayed this policy after considerable reaction from investors along with mining and petroleum companies by saying this policy had not been considered by cabinet.

While in Brisbane last week he also touched on these matters.

O'Neill reportedly told The Australian he had already cautioned, and will caution again his ministers plus state-owned enterprises involved in the mining and hydrocarbon industries to "desist promptly from giving misleading signals" to foreign investors.

"My government is not about making life difficult for foreign investors," he told the newspaper.