Witness K lawyer Bernard Collaery calls for ATO whistleblower charges to be dropped

Former Australian Taxation Office employee Richard Boyle will go to trial to defend himself against the Commonwealth on 24 charges for the release of protected information after a South Australian court dismissed his attempt to use federal whistleblower protection laws as a defence.

Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery, who himself faced offences for unlawfully communicating classified information before they were dropped by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus last year, said the prosecution was not in the public interest and should be dropped.

Mr Boyle leaked documents to the media in 2018 revealing the ATO's introduction of harsher debt-collection tactics, which included the use of orders that require a bank to hand over money from a personal or business account without the permission of the taxpayer.

Mr Collaery, a former ACT deputy chief minister and attorney-general, said Mr Dreyfus should act "courageously" and drop the charges against Mr Boyle.

"Given the vast access to personal [taxation] records in the name of national security and organised crime, there is a level of hypocrisy concerning Richard Boyle's benign revelations," Mr Collaery told ACM, publisher of this newspaper.

"To continue prosecuting him in the name of maintaining respect for ATO confidentiality is not in the public interest. Mark Dreyfus was courageous in dropping the charges against me and he should do the same for Richard."

Mr Dreyfus has previously dismissed calls to use special ministerial powers to end the case against Mr Boyle, saying it was not an "exceptional circumstance".

The Attorney-General's office was contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.

South Australian District Court Judge Liesl Kudelka dismissed the ex-ATO worker's attempt on Monday with the reasons remaining suppressed under an interim order until at least Thursday.

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

Amendments to improve the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which Mr Boyle unsuccessfully tried to use as a defence, are expected to be debated in the Senate this week and could increase protections for disclosers and enhance watchdog oversight of investigations.

The proposed changes mark the initial attempts to improve protections ahead of the National Anti-Corruption Commission's opening mid-year, as promised by Mr Dreyfus.

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Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said Monday's decision showed why stronger reforms were urgently needed, adding to calls for the case to be dropped.

"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 resisted earlier calls to end the case against Mr Boyle.

In a letter to Greens senator David Shoebridge last year, the first law officer said he was strongly of the view that "integrity and rule of law are central to Australia's criminal justice arrangements".

"The Attorney-General's power to discontinue proceedings under section 71 of the Judiciary Act is reserved for very unusual and exceptional circumstances, and requires careful consideration before it is exercised," he said.

"The question of applicability of immunities under the Public Interest Disclosure Act to his particular circumstances is a matter for the courts to determine."

Senator Shoebridge described Monday's news as "deeply distressing".