Australia's new National Anti-Corruption Commission is due to begin its work in July.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the organisation will provide strong protections for whistle-blowers.
"The Commission will operate independent of government with discretion to commence inquiries into serious or systemic corruption on its own initiative or in response to referrals, including from whistle-blowers and the public."
That promise comes as the government conducts a review of secrecy provisions across Commonwealth laws.
Professor A-J Brown is a board member of Transparency International Australia. He says there are several problems with the existing secrecy laws.
"There's too many of them. They're disproportionate, they lack oversight and they fail to fulfil the fundamental objective of protecting secrecy properly by also allowing democracy to thrive, through having the right sort of tests to ensure they aren't abused."
The debate over secrecy laws comes as two high-profile whistle-blowers face possible jail terms in separate prosecutions.
Former military lawyer David McBride, who exposed alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, is to face a trial after he failed to secure immunity from criminal liability under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.
David McBride has pleaded not guilty to all five charges.
And Richard Boyle is facing criminal prosecution for exposing what he alleges as unethical debt recovery processes used by the Australian Taxation Office.
Kieran Pender says Australia isn't doing enough to protect whistle-blowers.
