More than 500 Australian Federal Police officers will leave the force if current pay offer accepted

Australia’s national police force is facing a mass exodus over a new pay deal as its union threatens further strikes.

Hundreds of federal police officers will leave the force if a better pay deal isn’t offered under a new enterprise bargaining agreement.

A damning Australian Federal Police Association survey of the union’s more than 4000 members has revealed more than 800 AFP staff will leave their jobs if they aren’t offered a pay rise, with the union threatening possible strikes on top of existing industrial action.

Of the 1799 survey respondents, which includes almost 1300 sworn officers, 90 per cent did not support accepting the current proposed pay rise of 11.2 per over three years.

More than 45 per cent, including hundreds of sworn officers across the country, said they would leave the Australian Federal Police as soon as possible if the figure was accepted, while just over a third indicated they planned to stay put for the next year and 21 per cent would remain in the job until the next agreement.

More than 800 sworn Australian Federal Police officers will leave the force if a bigger pay increase isn’t offered in a new enterprise agreement. Picture: Supplied.

Almost 80 per cent of respondents said they had considered leaving in the past year.

The average pay rise members sought according to the survey was 17 per cent.

“The AFP offers one of the lowest pay packages in the country and has become unattractive to anyone looking to apply for policing jobs in Australia,” one respondent said.

“The AFP are losing more members than they are recruiting and all teams are running well under acceptable numbers.”

The survey highlighted major staff concerns, with 1204 respondents indicating they do not feel there are enough colleagues on shift to ensure their safety on any given day.

The reasons included a lack of available squad members, officers being called to other locations or teams to cover staff shortages and more jobs than police on the ground.

One survey respondent said they would take a job “anywhere but the AFP”.

The AFPA is now exploring withdrawing officers from high-security locations including major international airports and Parliament House in Canberra if negotiations with the federal government don’t improve.

“Organised crime in Australia isn’t isolated to just the major cities,” AFPA president Alex Caruana said.

“Organised crime is all over Australia.

Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana said the union was considering further industrial action over the pay deal. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

“If the AFP dwindles in numbers, South Australians will notice that there will be an increase in those sorts of crimes and those sorts of risks.”

The concerns come as AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw was reappointed as the nation’s top cop until October 2026.

The union has urged members to vote down the current offer, warning they will be worse off under the new deal.

Mr Caruana said the union had sought specialist legal advice about further industrial action.

“We are looking at our options,” AFPA president Alex Caruana said.

“We are very, very, very far down the line of considering the withdrawal of labour from certain areas to send a message to the government and to the AFP that the offer that they’ve given us is not adequate.”

An AFP spokeswoman said the force’s offer was in line with government bargaining policy.

“The AFP recognises the right of employees to take responsible and legally appropriate protected industrial action,” she said.

“The AFP had put in place contingency plans to ensure there are no disruptions to operational capability, and no impacts to community safety.”