The Senate is set to launch an inquiry into abuse of women and children inside the Nauru detention centre after an independent report detailed allegations of rape, sexual assaults and intimidation.

The inquiry is backed by the former chief justice and chief magistrate on Nauru, both Australians who were expelled by the Nauru government, and by former case workers who doubt the capacity of officials and contractors to implement the report's recommendations.

The former magistrate, Peter Law, has told Fairfax Media he has no confidence that the Nauru police has the capacity or the independence to investigate the allegations. He also says there needs to be more accountability for the money paid to Nauru to provide the centre.

The inquiry will take evidence under parliamentary privilege from past and present staff, including some of those employed by Save The Children who were expelled from the island and whose conduct was not found wanting in the independent report.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, whose allegations of sexual abuse triggered the investigation by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss, will announce the inquiry on Tuesday.

She will need the support of the Labor Party for it to proceed, but the Opposition's immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, has signalled his backing. "We are definitely open to considering a review," a spokeswoman for Mr Marles said.

Senator Hanson-Young told Fairfax Media: "There is no accountability or rule of law on Nauru and a full Parliamentary inquiry is the only way to reveal the true situation there.

"Detention centre staff who have worked on Nauru deserve to have the legal protections that come with giving evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry. They are the ones with the firsthand knowledge of what's really going on there and they need to have their say."

Mr Marles branded the government's initial response the report as "disgraceful" and said Australians needed to be given "a sense of confidence that every person within the detention facilities is safe".

One former case worker has raised concerns about whether Mr Moss was given access to all documents after he reported there was no information to substantiate one allegation of sexual intimidation.

The case worker insists an information report outlining the complaint was made to Wilson Security and that it was raised in a number of internal emails. "If Mr Moss was not given these documents, you can only wonder what other material was not made available," the case worker told Fairfax Media.

Another with an intimate knowledge of the detention centre on Nauru, Caz Coleman, supported an inquiry to monitor the implementation of the Moss report's recommendations, but expressed doubts about whether they would result in a safe environment for women and children.

Ms Coleman, a former member of the government's ministerial council on asylum seekers and detention, is concerned that it will be impossible to guarantee the safety of asylum seekers in the absence of a comprehensive framework in Nauru to address such issues as sexual and family violence and child protection.

"The report and the recommendations come as no surprise to anyone who has worked on Nauru," said Ms Coleman, who was contract manager for the Salvation Army on Nauru in 2013.

The inquiry will also focus on the performance of the former immigration minister, Scott Morrison, who went public with allegations that Save The Children staff had fabricated evidence of sexual abuse when he called the inquiry.

"They are employed to do a job, not to be political activists. Making false claims, and worse allegedly coaching self-harm and using children in protests is unacceptable, whatever their political views or agendas," Mr Morrison said in October.

The Moss report found no conclusive evidence of wrong-doing by 10 Save The Children staff and recommended that the immigration department review the decision to remove them from Nauru.

Rejecting calls for an apology to the Save The Children staff, Mr Morrison said:  "I put in place an independent inquiry to review allegations. That is what a minister should do in those circumstances and I am pleased the matter has been properly investigated, we have got clear findings and they have got clear recommendations and the government has responded positively to those recommendations."

The lawyer representing the workers, David Shaw, is expected to write to the department to ask how it proposes to review the decision to remove them from Nauru.

The inquiry is also supported by an Australian business figure, David Argyle, who is owed more than $7 million by the Nauru government.

"We welcome and strongly support an Inquiry which gives a voice to many of Nauru's victims and holds the Nauru government accountable for its actions and obligations to all Australian citizens," a spokesman for Mr Argyle said.

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