The Attorney-General has refused to drop the prosecution of ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says he will not drop charges against the former ATO public-servant-turned-whistleblower. 

Mr Boyle spoke up about unethical debt-recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office, and now faces the prospect of life in prison. 

Mr Boyle attempting to raise the issues within the ATO internally, and made a complaint to the tax ombudsman before blowing the whistle as a part of a joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation.

Mr Boyle's allegations of aggressive debt recovery practices at the ATO at the time have since been proved valid. 

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has reduced the charges against Mr Boyle from 66 to 24 offences, dropping some charges days after a federal parliamentary report found the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had only conducted a “superficial” investigation into his public interest disclosure.

The Human Rights Law Centre has been pushing for Mr Dreyfus to drop the prosecution against Mr Boyle, as he recently did with the prosecution of lawyer Bernard Collaery 

Mr Dreyfus has so far resisted the call, but the government says it is “committed to reforming the Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Act”, which includes whistleblower protections.