Vulnerable Australians caught up in dark chapters of the nation's history such as robodebt may have been spared the pain with stronger whistleblower protections.
An independent whistleblower protection authority put forward by House of Representative and Senate crossbenchers would be set up under proposed legislation.
The authority would be a "one-stop shop" for whistleblowers, providing legal advice and helping those who come forward step through administrative and legal processes to expose corruption and wrongdoing.
It would also be able to provide advice to government and be able to enforce protections against agencies.
Those who exposed wrongdoing put themselves at risk of being prosecuted and made a pariah, independent MP and whistleblower Andrew Wilkie told reporters in Canberra on Monday after he presented the bill in the lower house.
"It takes such courage, and at times more than courage, it takes a person's capacity to throw away everything else in order to do this," he said.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission wasn't the panacea to stopping corruption and instead should be used at the end of the process, Mr Wilkie added.
"For this country to have integrity, for governance to have integrity, you need to encourage and celebrate people to speak up when they see misconduct," he said.
"You then need media freedom laws to give the media the legal right to publicise those concerns if necessary."
Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie accused the major parties of not wanting to pursue whistleblower protection reform, saying there was a dearth of leadership in the space.
"Wouldn't that be a leadership thing? Wouldn't you want to know what is going on? What is corrupting the country? No, not those major parties," she said.
"Why does it take this country to have to run a royal commission to get the corruption out there amongst the Australian people?
"What are they so scared of?"
Crossbench colleague Senator David Pocock questioned why Richard Boyle, who blew the whistle on aggressive Australian Tax Office practices and was found to be correct, is being prosecuted and faces decades in prison.
The charges relate to how he gathered evidence.
Senator Pocock also reflected on the harm that could have been avoided by the robodebt scheme that illegally issued welfare debts if frontline worker Jeannie-Marie Blake had support to come forward.
She told a royal commission she and her colleagues raised concerns from the scheme's inception but were still forced to implement it.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus strengthened public sector whistleblowing by amending the Public Interest Disclosure Act and is reviewing a second tranche of reforms.
Consultations on the need to establish a whistleblower protection authority or commissioner are ongoing.
