July 22, 2025 • 12 mins
The Australian Federal Police investigate some of the country's most serious crimes - terrorism, corruption, drugs, and human trafficking.
But a new report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman has found that the one thing the AFP is not good at investigating is itself.
It's found that the agency is dismissing complaints that should be investigated, including allegations of corruption and assault within its own ranks.
Today, journalist Karen Middleton on allegations inside the AFP, and what it tells us about the culture of the agency.
If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
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Guest: Journalist Karen Middleton
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM.
The AFP is in charge of investigating the country's most
serious crimes, terrorism, corruption, drugs and human trafficking. But a
new report from the Commonwealth Ombardsman has suggested that the
(00:22):
thing it's not good at is investigating itself. It's found
that the agency is dismissing complaints that should be investigated,
including allegations of corruption and assault. Today journalist Karen Middleton
on allegations inside the AFP and what they tell us
about the culture of the agency. It's Wednesday, July twenty three.
(00:54):
So Karen, you've been looking into the report just released
into internal complaints at the AFP. Tell me what you've uncovered.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, the Commonwealth Ombardsman is responsible for overseeing the operations
of the AFP and the Ombardsman files a series of
reports every year on aspects of those operations. One of
those is about its handling of complaints against its own
offices and staff. And we've just seen a report tabled
(01:22):
by the Obodsman in the last week or so looking
at that. Now, there's a bit of a lag in
these reports. They aren't published for a year or so
beyond the period that they look at, so this report
is really from twenty twenty three to twenty four, and
there was a change to the way the AFP managed
its complaints in the middle of twenty twenty three. It
went from using regionally based bodies right around the country
(01:46):
to one centralized body. But what this report suggests is
there's a pretty chronic overuse of the power of discretion
that is given under law to the Commissioner of the
AFP to you dismiss complaints without any further action or investigation.
Now that power is a delegated power. He doesn't exercise
(02:08):
it personally directly himself. It is exercised by that complaint's body.
But the list of complaints that are being dismissed has
gone up pretty dramatically. If we look at the figures
in that report, they show that in the year before
that centralization occurred, just thirty two percent of complaints were
being dismissed under this discretionary power. In the year after
(02:31):
it began, the rate was eighty five percent. And the
Ombudsman is very concerned about that. The Ombudsman's report says
they found that in nine of the eleven instances they
reviewed the use of the discretionary power was unreasonable, unfair
and failed to meet the requirements of the legislation.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, can you tell me what kind of complaints we're
talking about, what sort of alleged conduct.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I think the most prominent of the examples it
gives is allegations of the personal misuse of police vehicles.
So there's not a lot of detail about exactly what happened,
whether these were marked or unmarked police cars, but the
suggestion was that they had been used inappropriately. The obitsmen
found that when the police were asked to explain this,
(03:16):
its response was that even though the guidelines for using
police vehicles were clear, it had discovered that officers didn't
understand them and that the practice of using police vehicles
personally was widespread, so they took no further action. The
Commonwealth Combitsmen's taken a very dim view of that and
says that it needs to be referred to the National
(03:37):
Anti Corruption Commission for examination as potential serious systemic corruption.
The example of the police vehicles dated back to before
the switchover in the complaints handling, and also before the
Anti Corruption Commission, which we call the NAC had been created.
Prior to that, there was another body that was responsible
(03:57):
for investigating police corruption allegation see Australian Commission for Law
Enforcement Integrity. But in this case it was found that
it was referred to them. Initially they sent it back
to the police and said, look, you look into this,
let us know if you find any evidence of wrongdoing.
The police did uncover what the Ombardsman says could have
(04:18):
actually been admissions and a number of other pieces of
information that were potentially useful, but it was never referred
formally and that really was why the Ombodsman has decided
that it needs proper investigation and the police have agreed
to do that, and they've also agreed to set up
their own separate external inquiry into the whole complaints handling system.
(04:41):
They've appointed a law firm to run that. They consulted
the Obardsmen in the course of setting that up and
that should start by the end of the month.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So that particular case is going to the knack now
that the Onwardsman has I suppose pointed it out in
their report, But tell me more about other cases that
they identified where the AFP hadn't fully pursued an investigation
where perhaps the Onwardsmen thinks that they should.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Have found well. The Obousman found one allegation of sexual
misconduct against AFP personnel who had been dealing with a
person in custody. Now that was also dismissed without further investigation,
on the basis that the body cam vision that the
police were wearing didn't substantiate the allegation. But when the
Obodsman's office reviewed the footage, they found but nineteen minutes
(05:31):
of it was missing, and no record that either the
people who were accused or the specific complainant had been
contacted for their version. And there was another complaint about
an officer inappropriately using a firearm in the workplace. Now
that was dismissed on the basis that the person had
already been counseled. But the Onbardsman has found that this
(05:52):
didn't reflect the seriousness of the allegations. It didn't properly
consider comments that were contained in the complaint that other
personnel felt unsafe when this had happened, and there seemed
to be no if it made to establish whether this
was a service weapon, a real weapon, or a training
weapon a replica. So there were a range of concerns
the onbitsmen had and said that needed further examination.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
After the break. Why the AFP is allowed to decide
not to investigate itself, Karen. Central to all of this
is the idea that serious allegations of misconduct, at times
(06:40):
or at least in one case, potentially reaching the level
of corruption, have been identified but then dismissed or not
investigated further within the AFP. So can you tell me
a bit about how that decision is made.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yes, So, this legislation that governs the AFP's operations, it's
the Australian Federal Police Act, and there's one section in
that section forty TF that gives the Commissioner the discretion
to take no further action on a complaint. Even though
that is a power that is ultimately the commissioners, it's
a delegated power. So it's the complaints handling body that
(07:16):
really exercises that discretion and makes the decision on whether
or not things should be further investigated. So that seems
to be where these problems are centered. The almostmen found
that these sort of first pass assessments that the body
was doing didn't always consider a whole lot of other
available evidence, you know, other verifying information, what other sources
(07:39):
there might be that they could pursue, witnesses or other records.
Didn't always consider that any available evidence might be highly
credible even though it was limited. Didn't look at whether
more investigation could be required to establish the basic facts
before making a ruling, or whether the seriousness of the
allegations just naturally necessitated taking more steps to inquire about
(08:02):
them before making a determination.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Okay, so is the ombudsman critical then of either the
Central Complaints Body or the leadership of the AFP.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, Interestingly, he notes that there has been an old
quote a particularly high repeat of issues over the last
six years, and that is actually the time that the
AFP Commissioner Rees Kershaw has been in his job. He
started there in twenty nineteen. Now, as I say, it's
a delegated power, so it's not a power that he
personally has exercised. But the Home Affairs Minister, when I
(08:35):
asked his office about that timeline, has backed in the
commissioner and says Commissioner Kershaw is an impressive leader and
enjoys my confidence. So he's certainly not raising any concerns
about the Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Personally okay, But all of this, what does it tell
you about the culture within the AFP at the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, I think the concern it raises is the risk
that there's a perception of impunity among the police about
complaints against themselves. And of course the police is a
very important institution, but they depend very heavily on public trust,
and the ombudsman is saying that this is now looking
like a pattern of failing to completely investigate or even
(09:20):
do an initial examination of too many allegations. When I
ask the AFP for specific responses to what the ombardsmen found,
it points to the fact that it's setting up this
independent review and it says that this is to ensure
the police force quote maintains a mature and defensible complaint
management system unquote, and it also insists that the internal
(09:44):
mandatory reporting regimes that it has on professional standards, which
include allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct, are robust.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So do you get the sense then that what the
omwardsman has found is being taken seriously by the AFP.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yes, they've accepted the majority of the recommendations the obodsmen made,
but there are a handful that they've only partially agreed to.
And what isn't clear from the report is which bits
of those they've agreed to and which they haven't. So
there are some caveats on what they're doing. But they have,
as I say, said, they will send that allegation about
police car' misuse to the Anti Corruption Commission, and they've
(10:22):
undertaken to re examine some of the issues that the
Ombudsman recommends looking at. What they haven't fully committed to
is re examining some of the cases where the Ombudsman
says that things were classified too low in terms of
the level of the complaint. Some of those the Obodsmen
thinks should have been upper category, which would have warranted
(10:43):
a different kind of investigation and would have had potentially
more serious consequences, and the Ombodsman Ian Anderson was concerned
that things were being kind of downgraded to dismiss them
more readily. Now the police have said they'll re examine
their way they categorize these complaints, but they haven't yet
committed to re examining and reinvestigating if necessary, some of
(11:05):
those key complaints that the Obotsman.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Raised, And so Karen, it seems like the AFP is
tasked with the job of investigating itself in a lot
of these instances. So do you think that there is
a question there about whether or not that is appropriate.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, the Ombudsman hasn't specifically suggested that somebody else should
be doing the job, but I think the implication in
the level of criticism in this report is that the
AFP should certainly be doing the job better.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Well, Karen, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Thanks Ruby.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Also in the news today, Pauline Hanson has nominated Independent
Senator David Pocock for the role of Senate President. Pocock
declined the nomine nation, saying he was flattered and surprised,
but focused on his role representing the ACT. Labour's Sue
Lines was returned to the role after beating the Greens
Penny Almond Pain fifty five twelve and new figures show
(12:13):
an alarming increase in the number of women and girls
seeking homelessness support. Homelessness Australia research shows there's been an
increase from twenty four thousand, five hundred and seventeen women
and girls seeking help in May twenty twenty two up
to almost thirty thousand in March of this year. The
figures also show an increase in the number of females
at risk of homelessness. Almost half of women and girls
(12:36):
looking for support had experienced domestic and family violence. I'm
Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM.
The AFP is in charge of investigating the country's most
serious crimes, terrorism, corruption, drugs and human trafficking. But a
new report from the Commonwealth Ombardsman has suggested that the
(00:22):
thing it's not good at is investigating itself. It's found
that the agency is dismissing complaints that should be investigated,
including allegations of corruption and assault. Today journalist Karen Middleton
on allegations inside the AFP and what they tell us
about the culture of the agency. It's Wednesday, July twenty three.
(00:54):
So Karen, you've been looking into the report just released
into internal complaints at the AFP. Tell me what you've uncovered.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, the Commonwealth Ombardsman is responsible for overseeing the operations
of the AFP and the Ombardsman files a series of
reports every year on aspects of those operations. One of
those is about its handling of complaints against its own
offices and staff. And we've just seen a report tabled
(01:22):
by the Obodsman in the last week or so looking
at that. Now, there's a bit of a lag in
these reports. They aren't published for a year or so
beyond the period that they look at, so this report
is really from twenty twenty three to twenty four, and
there was a change to the way the AFP managed
its complaints in the middle of twenty twenty three. It
went from using regionally based bodies right around the country
(01:46):
to one centralized body. But what this report suggests is
there's a pretty chronic overuse of the power of discretion
that is given under law to the Commissioner of the
AFP to you dismiss complaints without any further action or investigation.
Now that power is a delegated power. He doesn't exercise
(02:08):
it personally directly himself. It is exercised by that complaint's body.
But the list of complaints that are being dismissed has
gone up pretty dramatically. If we look at the figures
in that report, they show that in the year before
that centralization occurred, just thirty two percent of complaints were
being dismissed under this discretionary power. In the year after
(02:31):
it began, the rate was eighty five percent. And the
Ombudsman is very concerned about that. The Ombudsman's report says
they found that in nine of the eleven instances they
reviewed the use of the discretionary power was unreasonable, unfair
and failed to meet the requirements of the legislation.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, can you tell me what kind of complaints we're
talking about, what sort of alleged conduct.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I think the most prominent of the examples it
gives is allegations of the personal misuse of police vehicles.
So there's not a lot of detail about exactly what happened,
whether these were marked or unmarked police cars, but the
suggestion was that they had been used inappropriately. The obitsmen
found that when the police were asked to explain this,
(03:16):
its response was that even though the guidelines for using
police vehicles were clear, it had discovered that officers didn't
understand them and that the practice of using police vehicles
personally was widespread, so they took no further action. The
Commonwealth Combitsmen's taken a very dim view of that and
says that it needs to be referred to the National
(03:37):
Anti Corruption Commission for examination as potential serious systemic corruption.
The example of the police vehicles dated back to before
the switchover in the complaints handling, and also before the
Anti Corruption Commission, which we call the NAC had been created.
Prior to that, there was another body that was responsible
(03:57):
for investigating police corruption allegation see Australian Commission for Law
Enforcement Integrity. But in this case it was found that
it was referred to them. Initially they sent it back
to the police and said, look, you look into this,
let us know if you find any evidence of wrongdoing.
The police did uncover what the Ombardsman says could have
(04:18):
actually been admissions and a number of other pieces of
information that were potentially useful, but it was never referred
formally and that really was why the Ombodsman has decided
that it needs proper investigation and the police have agreed
to do that, and they've also agreed to set up
their own separate external inquiry into the whole complaints handling system.
(04:41):
They've appointed a law firm to run that. They consulted
the Obardsmen in the course of setting that up and
that should start by the end of the month.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So that particular case is going to the knack now
that the Onwardsman has I suppose pointed it out in
their report, But tell me more about other cases that
they identified where the AFP hadn't fully pursued an investigation
where perhaps the Onwardsmen thinks that they should.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Have found well. The Obousman found one allegation of sexual
misconduct against AFP personnel who had been dealing with a
person in custody. Now that was also dismissed without further investigation,
on the basis that the body cam vision that the
police were wearing didn't substantiate the allegation. But when the
Obodsman's office reviewed the footage, they found but nineteen minutes
(05:31):
of it was missing, and no record that either the
people who were accused or the specific complainant had been
contacted for their version. And there was another complaint about
an officer inappropriately using a firearm in the workplace. Now
that was dismissed on the basis that the person had
already been counseled. But the Onbardsman has found that this
(05:52):
didn't reflect the seriousness of the allegations. It didn't properly
consider comments that were contained in the complaint that other
personnel felt unsafe when this had happened, and there seemed
to be no if it made to establish whether this
was a service weapon, a real weapon, or a training
weapon a replica. So there were a range of concerns
the onbitsmen had and said that needed further examination.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
After the break. Why the AFP is allowed to decide
not to investigate itself, Karen. Central to all of this
is the idea that serious allegations of misconduct, at times
(06:40):
or at least in one case, potentially reaching the level
of corruption, have been identified but then dismissed or not
investigated further within the AFP. So can you tell me
a bit about how that decision is made.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yes, So, this legislation that governs the AFP's operations, it's
the Australian Federal Police Act, and there's one section in
that section forty TF that gives the Commissioner the discretion
to take no further action on a complaint. Even though
that is a power that is ultimately the commissioners, it's
a delegated power. So it's the complaints handling body that
(07:16):
really exercises that discretion and makes the decision on whether
or not things should be further investigated. So that seems
to be where these problems are centered. The almostmen found
that these sort of first pass assessments that the body
was doing didn't always consider a whole lot of other
available evidence, you know, other verifying information, what other sources
(07:39):
there might be that they could pursue, witnesses or other records.
Didn't always consider that any available evidence might be highly
credible even though it was limited. Didn't look at whether
more investigation could be required to establish the basic facts
before making a ruling, or whether the seriousness of the
allegations just naturally necessitated taking more steps to inquire about
(08:02):
them before making a determination.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Okay, so is the ombudsman critical then of either the
Central Complaints Body or the leadership of the AFP.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, Interestingly, he notes that there has been an old
quote a particularly high repeat of issues over the last
six years, and that is actually the time that the
AFP Commissioner Rees Kershaw has been in his job. He
started there in twenty nineteen. Now, as I say, it's
a delegated power, so it's not a power that he
personally has exercised. But the Home Affairs Minister, when I
(08:35):
asked his office about that timeline, has backed in the
commissioner and says Commissioner Kershaw is an impressive leader and
enjoys my confidence. So he's certainly not raising any concerns
about the Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Personally okay, But all of this, what does it tell
you about the culture within the AFP at the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, I think the concern it raises is the risk
that there's a perception of impunity among the police about
complaints against themselves. And of course the police is a
very important institution, but they depend very heavily on public trust,
and the ombudsman is saying that this is now looking
like a pattern of failing to completely investigate or even
(09:20):
do an initial examination of too many allegations. When I
ask the AFP for specific responses to what the ombardsmen found,
it points to the fact that it's setting up this
independent review and it says that this is to ensure
the police force quote maintains a mature and defensible complaint
management system unquote, and it also insists that the internal
(09:44):
mandatory reporting regimes that it has on professional standards, which
include allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct, are robust.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So do you get the sense then that what the
omwardsman has found is being taken seriously by the AFP.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yes, they've accepted the majority of the recommendations the obodsmen made,
but there are a handful that they've only partially agreed to.
And what isn't clear from the report is which bits
of those they've agreed to and which they haven't. So
there are some caveats on what they're doing. But they have,
as I say, said, they will send that allegation about
police car' misuse to the Anti Corruption Commission, and they've
(10:22):
undertaken to re examine some of the issues that the
Ombudsman recommends looking at. What they haven't fully committed to
is re examining some of the cases where the Ombudsman
says that things were classified too low in terms of
the level of the complaint. Some of those the Obodsmen
thinks should have been upper category, which would have warranted
(10:43):
a different kind of investigation and would have had potentially
more serious consequences, and the Ombodsman Ian Anderson was concerned
that things were being kind of downgraded to dismiss them
more readily. Now the police have said they'll re examine
their way they categorize these complaints, but they haven't yet
committed to re examining and reinvestigating if necessary, some of
(11:05):
those key complaints that the Obotsman.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Raised, And so Karen, it seems like the AFP is
tasked with the job of investigating itself in a lot
of these instances. So do you think that there is
a question there about whether or not that is appropriate.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, the Ombudsman hasn't specifically suggested that somebody else should
be doing the job, but I think the implication in
the level of criticism in this report is that the
AFP should certainly be doing the job better.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Well, Karen, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Thanks Ruby.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Also in the news today, Pauline Hanson has nominated Independent
Senator David Pocock for the role of Senate President. Pocock
declined the nomine nation, saying he was flattered and surprised,
but focused on his role representing the ACT. Labour's Sue
Lines was returned to the role after beating the Greens
Penny Almond Pain fifty five twelve and new figures show
(12:13):
an alarming increase in the number of women and girls
seeking homelessness support. Homelessness Australia research shows there's been an
increase from twenty four thousand, five hundred and seventeen women
and girls seeking help in May twenty twenty two up
to almost thirty thousand in March of this year. The
figures also show an increase in the number of females
at risk of homelessness. Almost half of women and girls
(12:36):
looking for support had experienced domestic and family violence. I'm
Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.
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