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It will tone down the internal temperature on social issues — which captivate corporate Australia and have seeped into the organisation — and will get back to the basics of arresting criminals.

It comes as statistics reveal Queenslanders lost the second highest amount in the country to online scams in 2019 – about $26 million.

Nationally, Australians lost an eye-watering $142 million in 2019. Most were aged 45 years and older. Men were more likely to be fleeced.

Many of the syndicates are based overseas. Mr Kershaw wants to use the AFP’s assets overseas and its partner agencies to shut them down.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Mr Kershaw, who has told officers to start wearing their uniforms again, has revealed the AFP will change direction and act like a “police force”.

“I’m trying to bring it back to our core reason for existing, which is within Section 8 of the AFP Act, and going back to becoming a disciplined police force that delivers maximum damage to the criminal environment,’’ Mr Kershaw said.

“Over the years, the organisation’s mandate has grown.

“It’s been given different tasks, different policy proposals.

“I’m just bringing it back to ‘what does that Act state that we have to deliver’.”

While former police commissioner Andrew Colvin was widely respected and liked by many, there was a view the AFP had become too “woke” and too concerned about issues that were not core policing.

“We make sure we embrace the values of productive diversity,” Mr Kershaw said.

“It’s not just gender – it’s diversity of thought.”

Mr Kershaw’s appointment, and the appointment of former Queensland deputy commissioner Brett Pointing as AFP deputy commissioner of operations, reveals the organisation’s main focus will be serving and protecting, plus delivering a punch to criminal networks.

The organisation will be restructured and decentralised to give command-delegated authority to make decisions that are not bogged down by internal committees or the bureaucracy within.

The changes include a new northern command in Brisbane.

“For us it’s about how do we create a hostile environment online; how do we create a hostile environment for organised criminals; how do we use our international operation arm for a greater punch offshore?” Mr Kershaw said.

“We will hunt down people who want to do harm to Australians, and that is a stronger language that I will use.

“But that’s what we are mandated to do.

“We carry guns, we carry tasers, we carry assault rifles – a whole range of things.

“We take away people’s liberties.

“Whether we like it or not, we are a police force.”

It comes as Mr Kershaw wants to provide better support to victims who have been defrauded online.

“Online fraud is growing,” he said.

“That’s a concern. We are looking at how do we service some of those victims better.

“For example, if you have $2000 to $3000 and you’re a pensioner and you’ve had that stolen from your bank account, you’d probably be lucky to have police turn up.

“If you have a couple of bikes stolen from your house, police will turn up, so we’re looking at how that online world now has permeated into the homes of Australians and how can we, as an agency, make the internet a safer place, but also have fewer victims across the board.

“Those are the things we are looking at now.
“If the syndicates are based offshore, well, the AFP has got an offshore capability.

“That’s why we are continuing enhancing those partnerships offshore.

“We can deliver a punch offshore once we track some of these syndicates down.

“We identify those syndicates and then work with our partner agency to trigger our legislation, and then look at how do we hunt them on the internet.”

Realistically, it is unlikely the AFP would be able to return the money but with its counterparts could shut down the syndicates and bring them to justice.

Mr Kershaw said returning foreign fighters, terrorism, criminal syndicates and online child exploitation remained the AFP’s focus.

The need for reform in the encryption of personal digital devices was also in the frame.