Employment Suitability Questionnaire

Employment Suitability Questionnaire 

As Australia’s national law enforcement agency, our employees must act with the highest level of integrity both on and off duty. 

To work with us you'll need to complete our Employment Suitability Questionnaire (ESQ) otherwise your application won't progress to the next round of the recruitment process. You'll be sent the ESQ to complete if you're short-listed. You'll also need to provide: 

• full traffic history
• proof of Australian citizenship.

This helps us assess your character and ability to comply with our professional standards in official and private capacities. 

If you have a history of disregarding the law (even as a juvenile), or associating with groups or individuals who attract the attention of law enforcement, you may not be eligible to work with us.

You won't receive feedback if you don’t pass the employment suitability assessment. Our decision is final, and there are no internal reviews.

What you need to provide

Declarable associations

If you have declarable associations (including family members), provide as much detail as possible about the people you declare. This includes their full name, date of birth, reasons why you believe there may be a conflict of interest, and how often you interact with them.

Traffic history

If you have ever held a licence, learner's permit or provisional licence, you must provide your traffic history. It must cover all states, territories and countries where you have held a licence for the last 10 years.

Juvenile convictions and cautions

If you received a conviction or caution when you were younger than 18, declare it and provide as much detail as you can remember, regardless of the outcome. For example, guilty, not guilty, caution, restorative justice or diversionary conferencing.

Illicit drug use

Declare all instances of illicit drug use, including what, when and how. If you are unsure of the exact dates of your last illicit drug use, provide as much detail as possible. At a minimum, include the year of your last illicit drug use and how many times.

Previous drug use doesn't immediately result in an unsuccessful application.

Once you have submitted your job application, you must cease all illicit drug use. We have a zero-tolerance drug policy for our employees.

Firearm use

Provide full details of firearm use. Make sure you include the date, location (state, territory and country) and reason for any firearm licence refusal, possession or use of a firearm or prohibited weapon, or unlawful history.

Living or travelling overseas

You need to tell us if you’ve spent significant periods living overseas or regularly travel abroad to regions of interest.

AFP Character Standards

Our character standards define the minimum standards for potential applicants across all AFP roles and responsibilities. They reflect the AFP Commissioner’s and the community’s expectations that all our employees are held to the highest level of integrity, both on and off duty.

Why we assess character

The integrity of the AFP is critical to our success in:

• meeting Australian Government, stakeholder and community expectations
• achieving our goals and objectives
• maintaining the continued support, trust and confidence of the Australian Government, stakeholders and community.

Our broad mandate is supported by our diverse workforce. All AFP employees must conduct themselves and behave in a manner that reflects our values, professional standards and integrity requirements.

An assessment of an applicant’s character is made, based on available information, in relation to that person’s ability to comply with the professional standards of the AFP in an official and private capacity.

Assessing character

We have strict integrity standards that must be adhered to, and each external applicant is considered individually.

The overall assessment of an applicant includes consideration of a wide range of characteristics, traits, attributes, skills and abilities, and includes, but isn't limited to the:

• Employment Suitability Questionnaire (ESQ)
• AFP core values
• character traits.

Employment Suitability Questionnaire

All applicants must complete the ESQ when applying for a job with the AFP. An assessment of an applicant’s character is aided by the applicant’s responses, and information provided in the ESQ.

AFP core values

Applicants must display, and are assessed against our core values:

• Integrity
• Commitment
• Excellence
• Accountability
• Fairness
• Trust
• Respect.

AFP character traits

Our character traits help us assess whether an applicant meets the character standards required by us to hold a valid security clearance. All employees must hold a valid security clearance.

Our character traits are:

• Honesty
• Trustworthiness
• Maturity
• Tolerance
• Resilience
• Loyalty.

Disclosing your criminal history

As part of the ESQ, applicants must disclose their criminal history (spent or otherwise), or any other relevant issue that could impact the assessment of their character.

Failure to disclose any required information in an application may result in the application not proceeding or revoking the security clearance.

The decision-maker may seek further information from applicants. However, it is important for applicants to give full details of the circumstances of any disclosure. This helps the decision-maker make their final decision about the application and any possible exclusion periods.

Applicants should declare any inappropriate or criminal associations. For example:

• any person, including a family member, involved in a group or organisation known or perceived to be involved in unlawful or criminal activities
• known criminals
• criminal entities.

The declaration of inappropriate and criminal associations won’t automatically exclude an application. The decision-maker will assess each declaration on a case-by-case basis.

Spent convictions scheme

As a law enforcement agency, the AFP is exempt from provisions in the spent convictions scheme – Part VIIC, Division 3 of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).

Applicants must disclose all convictions (spent or otherwise), to us when applying. If an applicant discloses a previous conviction (spent or otherwise), the decision-maker will consider the entire application. They will take into consideration the:

• dates of offences and convictions
• age of the applicant at the time of the offences or conduct
• seriousness of offences or conduct
• frequency or repeated nature of the offences or conduct, which indicates a pattern of behaviour in relation to alcohol, drugs, aggression, dishonesty or socially unacceptable behaviour
• applicant’s conduct and lifestyle since the last offence
• role in which the applicant will perform in the AFP.

Full traffic history

If you have ever held a driver's licence, provisional driver's licence or learner's permit, we need a copy of your traffic history.

Your traffic history must:

• have been obtained no more than 3 months before the initial request to provide your traffic history
• continuously cover the last 10 years you have held a licence
• include a record from all states and territories or countries that you have held a driver's licence in (including a learner's permit or provisional licence) over the last 10 years.

If you have held a licence for less than 10 years, your traffic history must cover your entire driving history. For example, if you have only had your licence for 4 years, you need to obtain your traffic history to cover this period.

Make sure you include the full document (all pages) provided by each licencing authority. Don't upload one page of a 2 or 3-page document.

The licencing authority documents don't need to be certified.

If you're unable to obtain your traffic history from another country, you must provide a statutory declaration that outlines licence details (including dates) and any traffic offences associated with this licence.

Each state and territory has a different name for their traffic authority. To help you, we've listed the traffic authorities across Australia where you can obtain your traffic history.

Several companies in Australia can perform licence checks on your behalf for a fee. To use this optional service, search the internet for 'licence checks Australia'.

We won't accept these documents as your traffic history:

• an issued traffic infringement notice
• demerit points record
• a copy of your driver's licence
• a National Police Certificate check
• any documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.

If you've lived overseas, have travelled extensively and held a licence or driven and received an infringement of any kind, provide a statutory declaration stating the period you held a licence and list any traffic offences you are aware of.

If you have never held a driver's licence or never driven and received an infringement of any kind, upload a statutory declaration to tell us.

Alcohol and prohibited drug use

We recognise the serious effects that drugs, alcohol and pharmaceutical abuse has on society. We expect our employees to be  committed to the highest standards of personal integrity and professionalism.

• You must not use prohibited drugs. This extends to consumption in Australia and overseas, regardless of use been decriminalised and/or legalised
• Abuse of pharmaceutical products is also prohibited. Inappropriate use or abuse of pharmaceutical products extends to use which exceeds the norms of clinical and therapeutic activity, including:
  • taking prescription medication not prescribed to you
  • taking  prescription medication outside of what it has been prescribed for. For example, exceeding the dosage set out by the prescribing authorised health practitioner
  • taking  over the counter pharmaceutical products outside the normal medical parameters. For example, exceeding the recommended dosage and/or for a purpose that it is not intended.
• You must not use SARMs except within lawful controlled medical parameters. These parameters must be set by a registered medical authority and conform to accepted treatment regimes
• Use of cannabinoids by AFP appointees is prohibited unless use is prescribed by an Australian registered health practitioner authorised to prescribe cannabinoids
• Consumption of alcohol is regulated. The alcohol concentration of all AFP appointees on duty (or returning to duty) must not exceed 0.02 grams of alcohol in 210 litres of breath or 100 millilitres of blood.

We test AFP appointees for use of prohibited drugs, alcohol and pharmaceutical misuse in accordance with the relevant legislation, regulations and this guideline.

Testing is conducted in accordance with the Australian Federal Police Regulations 2018 (Cth). You must comply with any written direction given to you to provide a body sample for  drug or alcohol testing. It is a serious breach of our professional standards if you disobey a direction or fail to undergo  drug or alcohol testing.