Anthony Albanese has dragged his feet on fixing whistleblower laws. Richard Boyle's case shows why he needs to act

The wife of ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle has pleaded with the prime minister, attorney-general and public service minister to look at the criminal prosecution of her husband and fix whistleblowing laws so nobody has to go through what they have endured. The latest plea, sent over the weekend, was triggered after the loss of Boyle's appeal to secure immunity from prosecution under whistleblower protection laws in South Australia's Supreme Court. "Richard has fallen victim to Australia's broken whistleblower laws — laws which your government admits are not working." "Before the last election the Albanese government promised to fix federal public sector whistleblowing laws – it must honour that commitment before the end of the current parliamentary term," he said. A series of questions were sent to Dreyfus, including whether he believed the whistleblower reforms would be enacted before the next election, whether he had done an investigation into whether or not the prosecutions of Boyle and McBride were having a chilling effect, whether he believed the whistleblower laws following the latest appeal decision were broken and why he continued to use the phrase "exceptional circumstances" given it isn't mentioned in the statutory provision which grants the power.