Changes for public servant whistleblowers

Attorney-General Christian Porter has reportedly set his sights on reforming whistleblower protections for public servants.

His planned overhaul of the Public Disclosure Act is aimed at making the whistleblower scheme easier to use and providing better protection for bureaucrats, The Australian has reported on Friday.

In making the changes, Mr Porter will take into account an independent review of the current laws in 2016, led by Philip Moss, which made recommendations in favour of encouraging a "pro-disclosure culture".

He will also consider criticism of the current scheme by Federal Court judge John Griffiths, who in an April judgement called the legislation "technical, obtuse and intractable", the paper reports.

The commitment comes after police raids on two media outlets this month.

The ABC was raided over stories in 2017 about allegations Australian soldiers may have carried out unlawful killings in Afghanistan, based on leaked Defence papers.

The Canberra home of News Corp reporter Annika Smethurst was also raided over the 2018 publication of a leaked plan to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australians.

Mr Porter says while he's looking to make the public servant whistleblowing scheme simpler, journalists reporting leaks are already protected enough under changes made last year.

The Espionage and Foreign Interference Act introduced last year included a new public interest defence, under which journalists can try to persuade a judge their story was in the public interest.

"The defence attaches to all of the new secrecy provisions and my view is the new secrecy provisions actually provide a significantly higher level of protection to journalists than the old secrecy provisions," Mr Porter told The Australian.