A senior scientist has told a commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing that working at Queensland’s government-run laboratory gave her a “sickening feeling” and she called for an overhaul of its “production-line” testing processes.

Kylie Rika started working in the laboratory in 2005 and remains a senior scientist in the forensic DNA unit.

The lab is under scrutiny after years of mounting concerns over testing failures, and last week’s bombshell interim report from Walter Sofronoff KC found “untrue” or “misleading” statements had been issued to the courts.

The statements related to some crime scene samples, which were reported as having “no DNA detected” or “DNA insufficient for further processing”, when in fact further testing might have yielded results.

It has led to fears of miscarriages of justice and the need to review DNA samples from potentially thousands of major crimes, including rapes and murders, dating back to 2018.

On day one of public hearings on Monday, Ms Rika said she voiced concerns about changing the threshold at which samples received further testing in 2018, but was ignored in a “toxic” working environment.

Today Ms Rika was questioned by Matthew Hickey – the lawyer…