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Whistleblowers have exposed some of our biggest scandals. Without them, there would have been no Watergate, Melbourne Storm would still be the NRL's powerhouse team and chair-sniffing West Australian Liberal Troy Buswell would still be treasurer – if not premier.

This week, a worker at the federal environment department lifted the lid on the government's now defunct home insulation scheme.

The bureaucrat told the ABC that there were warnings of the potential dangers of the scheme long before the deaths of insulation installers.

Now, the Opposition's environment spokesman is calling for that insider to be given the protection the government has previously promised.

"This is a Prime Minister who said that there would be no hunting down of whistleblowers who revealed information in the national interest," Greg Hunt told the ABC.

"Right now, this whistleblower is at risk and under threat and I want the Prime Minister to guarantee no witch-hunt for the person who called him out on having misled the public."