Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana warns AFP could struggle to fill protective security officer roles for AUKUS

The Australian Federal Police’s recruitment struggles could soon threaten a historic national project, the force’s union warns.

The Australian Federal Police’s crippling attrition could threaten the security of the historic AUKUS project, the force’s union has warned.

Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana says the AFP will struggle to hire the hundreds of protective security officers (PSOs) required to support security of the defence deal if the current pay deal on offer passes.

“We’ve got the highest attrition rate that we can remember in the AFP – more than double what it would normally be – and with the pay offer that’s on the table, we’re not going to be able to retain the PSOs that we’ve got and we’re not going to be able to attract people to come across to come to that cohort,” Mr Caruana said.

“I don’t think they’re going to attract and retain people.”

Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana said the AFP’s attrition rate could threaten its ability to protect the historic AUKUS project. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

PSOs are posted to a range of locations across Australia including airports, defence facilities, parliamentary sites and respond to national security threats.

The AFP in December launched a PSO recruiting blitz

Mr Caruana said the majority of people the AFP attracts to the roles would likely be sworn police officers who feel their work as police officers is not respected.

“Police officers are saying ‘I could jump across to be a PSO for either the same money or a little bit less money but my work life balance is significantly better’,” he said.

Mr Caruana said if the AFP’s current offer of an 11.2 per cent increase over three years went ahead, hundreds of officers could hand in their badges to work as PSOs, leaving a further shortfall of sworn federal police.

“If the current offer gets up, they will probably get a ton of police officers hand in their badge and transition across to become PSOs because PSOs will be getting paid more than police officers in some cases,” he said.

“Some of the people that will be joining them will be police officers to take on equal or better pay for a better work/life balance, so therefore they’ll be frantically backfilling the police officers that leave.

The AFP said it was working with the Defence Department and other federal agencies to provide armed protection for Australia’s nuclear submarine capability.

“So while they might be able to fill some of those PSO positions, they’ll be frantically trying to backfill a lot of the police positions which we’re currently short on.

“How are we going to backfill all of those policing positions?”

An AFP spokeswoman said the force was working with the Defence Department, the Australian Submarine Agency and other federal agencies to provide armed protection for Australia’s nuclear submarines.

Almost 1550 people have applied for PSO roles across Australia since the AFP launched a recruitment drive in January.

Voting for the proposed pay deal closed on Friday.