ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle faces jail after Public Interest Disclosure immunity claim dismissed

Judge Liesl Kudelka dismissed the former Australian Taxation Office employee's attempt to avoid charges using a whistleblower defence but the reasons remain suppressed under an interim order.

Mr Boyle, who could spend the rest of his life in prison if found guilty, attempted to use the federal government's Public Interest Disclosure Act to defend himself against 23 of 24 Commonwealth charges.

The trial, which began in October last year, is the first time the whistleblower defence has been used since it was introduced in 2013 by then-Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

The court ruling coincides with the federal government's plans to debate amendments in the Senate, to increase protections for disclosers and enhance watchdog oversight of investigations.

Mr Boyle exposed the ATO's introduction of harsher debt-collection tactics, including the use of orders that require a bank to hand over money from a personal or business account without the permission of the taxpayer.

He is facing 24 charges for the release of protected information.

As of January 30, the Commonwealth has spent $233,000 pursuing the case against Richard Boyle.

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Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said Monday's decision showed why reforms were urgently needed.

The human rights advocate called on Mr Dreyfus to drop the Commonwealth's pursuit of Mr Boyle and ex-Army lawyer David McBride, as he did with Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery.

"This prosecution, and that of war crimes whistleblower David McBride, are unjust and undemocratic," Mr Pender said.

"The whistleblowing laws enacted by Mark Dreyfus when he was Attorney-General in 2013 have now failed both men. There is no public interest in either prosecution and it is high-time that Dreyfus intervened to drop both cases, just as he dropped the Collaery case.

"The decision today only underscores the urgent need for law reform to ensure whistleblower protections are real and don't just exist on paper."

Mr Dreyfus has previously dismissed calls to drop the case against Mr Boyle, saying it was not an "exceptional circumstance".

Greens senator David Shoebridge described the news as "deeply distressing".

"Richard Boyle now faces years in jail for telling us the truth," he said.

"It is a shocking example of just how broken our existing whistleblower laws are and the urgent need for whistleblower reforms to give real protections for brave truth-tellers."