AFP slashes budget leaving elite counter-terrorism officers with 35 per cent axed from their pay packets

EXCLUSIVE: Counter-terrorism officers expected to take a bullet for the PM could be badly hit by AFP budget cuts. Independent senator Jacquie Lambie has taken up their cause.

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ELITE counter-terrorism officers and bodyguards expected to take a bullet for the Prime Minister are facing 35 per cent pay cuts as the Australian Federal Police slashes its budget.

The massive wage reductions in the AFP’s new Enterprise Agreement will hit 280 frontline police officers working in dangerous surveillance operations involving terrorist targets and organised crime syndicates, or in close personal protection for VIPS.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s spokesman said it was “a matter for the AFP”.

The elite officers were informed by email of the decision by the AFP executive to axe their “High Volume Composite” special allowance just days before Malcolm Turnbull praised their dedication in the wake of the Berlin truck attack.

Mr Turnbull said “we have the finest police and security forces in the world [who are working] night and day to keep Australians safe”.

“We are keenly focused on keeping Australians safe.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie is “very disappointed” with the decision.

But the wife of one elite AFP officer, who faces a $30,000 to $40,000 wage cut, said last night the PM’s comments were “incredibly hypocritical”.

“When Malcolm Turnbull himself said our men and women work night and day to protect this country, would he like people to know they work night and day with a 35 per cent pay cut?” she asked.

“To put it frankly, these are the people who have and will stop another potential atrocity such as the Sydney siege occurring on our shores ... Asking them to protect our country for less money and under more pressure is abhorrent.”

She says the financial uncertainty has placed the officers under stress, “and under stress people make mistakes”.

AFP members at the executive level have already received a 6 per cent increase in the first quarter of the year, with no loss of entitlements.

Last night, independent senator Jacqui Lambie took up the AFP officers’ cause, in a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister.

Senator Lambie wrote she was “very disappointed” the government “seems to have placed this sort of extreme financial pressure on AFP officers”. She “expected” Mr Turnbull would “do everything in your power” to protect pay and conditions for AFP officers

A spokesman for the PM said it was “a matter for the AFP”.

“We are advised that the Enterprise Agreement has not yet been finalised, so any suggestion that there has been a loss of conditions is wrong,” the spokesman said.

The EA, expected to be ratified next month, has been delayed for almost a year. While it will strip elite officers of entitlements, it will give non-executive AFP members a 2 per cent pay rise.

AFP members at the executive level have already received a 6 per cent increase in the first quarter of the year, with no loss of entitlements.