Transparency campaigners have welcomed attorney general Christian Porter’s announcement that whistleblower protections will be strengthened, while urging him to establish a new whistleblower protection authority, create a compensation scheme and shield a broader range of people.

Porter on Friday flagged his intention to overhaul public sector whistleblower protections, in an attempt to make the system simpler and more accessible to government employees.

It comes as a series of government whistleblowers face jail time for exposing government wrongdoing, including tax office employee Richard Boyle, defence lawyer David McBride, and former ACT attorney general Bernard Collaery and his intelligence officer client, Witness K.

The current public sector whistleblowing regime – introduced in 2013 – suffers from key weaknesses.

A review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act in 2016 found the laws were failing to support or protect whistleblowers from reprisal, and were being used predominantly for personal employment-related grievances.

Earlier this month, a federal court judge, John Griffiths, said the protections were “technical, obtuse and intractable”, after finding they could not be extended to a security guard who acted as a whistleblower within the department of parliamentary services.

Porter told the Australian he wants to overhaul public sector culture to better promote and facilitate disclosures. The detail of his planned reforms are not clear, and Porter’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday morning.

Transparency International Australia, which has long called for stronger whistleblower protections, said it was a good sign of intent from Porter and the Coalition. Chief executive Serena Lillywhite listed the creation of a whistleblower protection authority, compensation for whistleblowers who suffer reprisals, and protections for a broader range of people were among the priorities for reform.

“It is good that Mr Porter is opening the door accepting some of the recommendations of that [2016] review to instil a stronger pro-disclosure and pro-integrity culture,” she said.

Lillywhite said there needed to be a major overhaul of whistleblower and press freedom protections after the federal police raids. She said TIA feared the raids were having a chilling effect on public sector whistleblowers.

“While it is good that Mr Porter is opening the door to reforms, Australia’s national whistleblower protection laws actually need to be overhauled, and our media, better supported to expose crime and misconduct,” she said. “The court cases before us demonstrate that the protections we assume are in place, both for whistleblowers and for journalists, are not strong enough in practice.

“There are too many caveats and too many loopholes.”

The 2016 review of the PID act recommended the commonwealth ombudsman and intelligence watchdog be given greater power to scrutinise and monitor the government’s handling of whistleblower cases.

It recommended creating more investigative agencies under the PID act to examine whistleblowing complaints, including through the the Australian Public Service Commissioner and the Merit Protection Commissioner, the Inspector-General of Taxation, and the Integrity Commissioner.

The review also called for whistleblower protections to be better focussed on serious wrongdoing, such as fraud, corruption, and serious misconduct.

Lillywhite said any reforms should aim to bring public sector whistleblower protections in line with the new corporate whistleblower protections, which were passed by parliament this year. The reforms make the corporate whistleblowing regime in Australia world-leading in some respects.

The reforms mean corporate whistleblowers can go to a journalist or parliamentarian to make “emergency” or “public interest” disclosures 90 days after they last blew the whistle, whether internally or to a regulator. It also gives protection to the family of current or former employees.