The man who exposed misconduct rife in Commonwealth Bank's financial planning arm has given a scathing review of current whistleblower protection laws, accusing the federal government of "deliberately" choosing not to act on the issue out of fear of embarrassment.

Jeff Morris, who emerged as a whistleblower in 2008, made the comments during the launch of Sydney Morning Herald and The Age journalist Adele Ferguson's book, Banking Bad, and called on the federal government to form a whistleblower protection agency and compensation scheme.

"We have a government that is now actively persecuting public sector whistleblowers as never before, threatening them with up to 160 years of imprisonment.

We have a government that is also attempting to shut down free press by sending in teams of goons with sledgehammers to seize boxes of files," he said. "What that says to me is that this government doesn’t want whistleblowers coming forward."