Corporate Plan 2025-26

Commissioner’s foreword

In recent years, the operating environment of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has become increasingly complex and dynamic, and the challenges we face are anticipated to escalate in the years ahead.

The AFP continues to place significant efforts into addressing online child exploitation, terrorism, transnational serious and organised crime, illicit drug trafficking, cybercrime, and people smuggling. Simultaneously, our protection responsibilities continue to grow and are increasingly crossing over into national security. Official establishments, diplomatic missions, and critical infrastructure are no longer viewed as symbols of governance, but as strategic targets for hostile actors, including terrorists, cybercriminals, and politically motivated extremists.

Keeping pace with evolving demands and the growing sophistication of criminal behaviour is essential to shaping how we prevent, disrupt, and respond to threats, and enforce Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory law. Increasingly, we are encountering individuals and groups offering ‘crime-as-a-service’, committing offences such as hacking, fraud, and targeted attacks against religious and cultural groups. In this environment, our commitment to the ethical and responsible adoption of new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, remains steadfast, enabling us to stay ahead of criminal threats.

Against this backdrop, our partnerships are more vital than ever to deliver our mission of protecting Australians and Australia’s interests. Maintaining public trust and confidence is key to ensuring the community partner with us in combatting crime and minimising harm. Our engagement with law enforcement agencies, domestically and internationally, particularly across the Pacific, are critical to maximising impact, leading capacity and capability uplift efforts to support regional stability, and preventing harm from reaching Australians.

Central to achieving our mission are the people of the AFP. Reflective of our focus on our people and the challenges they face is the AFP Health and Wellbeing Strategy – Beyond 2024, which provides a sustainable model for holistic care and support for all AFP employees. This is complemented by our focus on attracting the right talent, building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve, and maintaining our reputation as an employer of choice. These efforts are critical to meeting both our current responsibilities and future demands, including delivery of protective services for the Western Sydney Airport and Defence establishments under the AUKUS agreement. Following the 2025 federal election, the AFP returned to the Department of Home Affairs portfolio, along with several other Commonwealth national security agencies. This means we are well placed to continue to collaborate with like-minded partners to continue to safeguard our country from those who seek to do us harm.

As Australia’s national policing agency, the AFP will continue to play an integral role in ensuring the safety and security of Australians and Australia’s national interests. The AFP Corporate Plan 2025–26 is vital in addressing these evolving challenges. We have uplifted our capability and risk frameworks to ensure they remain reflective of the operating environment and the expectations of government and the community. In line with good practice, we have introduced new thresholds for our quantitative performance measure targets that support a deeper understanding of the AFP’s performance.

Statement of preparation

I, as the accountable authority for the Australian Federal Police, present the AFP Corporate Plan 2025–26. This plan covers the 4-year period from 2025–26 to 2028–29 as required under section 35(1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth). It outlines our purpose, environment and approach and the results we will deliver.

Reece P Kershaw APM
Commissioner

About the AFP

Our purpose

As Australia’s national policing agency, we protect Australians and Australia’s interests. We are committed to protecting Australian lives, livelihoods and the Commonwealth; fostering trust and confidence with our community, partners and government; and maximising our impact on the criminal environment for a safer and more secure Australia.

Our role

Our role is to enforce Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) criminal law and protect the Commonwealth’s interests from criminal activity in Australia and overseas. We work closely with domestic and international partners to combat complex national security threats, transnational serious and organised crime, and other crime priorities identified in our Ministerial Direction. Under the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 (Cth) (AFP Act) the AFP investigates state offences with a federal aspect, in partnership with domestic partners, and provides community policing services to the ACT. The AFP uses its policing insights to engage effectively with the government, partners and the community to promote awareness and resilience.

Our core functions

The AFP’s core functions as identified in the AFP Act are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 AFP’s core functions

• Police Commonwealth law, safeguard Commonwealth interests and investigate state offences that have a federal aspect
• Undertake domestic engagement and cooperation to disrupt crime and keep Australians safe
• Assist international policing and non-government bodies to disrupt crime and support regional security, safety and stability
• Provide policing services to the ACT, Jervis Bay and Australia's external territories
• Protect Commonwealth infrastructure, places and property
• Protect designated high office holders, dignitaries and witnesses
• Provide offshore peace, stability and security operations, capacity building, police partnership programs and capability development
• Confiscate illegally obtained property or wealth from criminals
• Provide any other policing functions essential to protecting the lives, livelihoods and Australia's way of life, including protective and custodial services

Figure 2 Our corporate plan on a page

Our operating environment

The AFP continuously monitors and assesses our operating environment to ensure we can deliver on our purpose. The various geopolitical, social, economic and technological changes and conditions can affect the AFP directly and indirectly. These changes also shape the criminal environment as explored in the AFP Federal Crime Threat Picture.

Geopolitical change

International conflict and the increasing globalisation and convergence of crime are becoming more pronounced features of the AFP’s operating environment. Transnational organised crime is continuing to capitalise on instability within and between nations, which is increasing risks related to social cohesion, human trafficking, child exploitation, drug trafficking, cybercrime and terrorism. The AFP faces heightened challenges as new crime threats emerge, diplomatic relationships evolve and law enforcement cooperation in conflict-affected regions becomes more difficult.

The rapidly evolving global political landscape, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, is already impacting the community in Australia in the form of protest activity, political activism and community violence, with conflict overseas fuelling a rise in inflammatory language and increased incidence for violent responses. The impact of conflicts across regions creates uncertainty, and the likely displacement of people may lead to further geopolitical tensions with potential impact on Australia’s national security. These tensions and divisions within the community affect social cohesion and the domestic security environment. This includes the targeting of religious and ethnic groups across the country. The AFP will continue to work with partners such as state and territory law enforcement agencies to provide reassurance to the community and maintain social cohesion, resilience and trust, now and into the future.

The desirability of the Pacific and South-East Asia as a target for transnational organised crime and malicious actors remains a significant threat over the coming 4 years. As a result, the AFP’s new and existing partnerships with key international and regional law enforcement agencies in those regions are pivotal to reducing those threats. The AFP will continue to enhance our capabilities to monitor and disrupt emerging threats before they impact our region, including Australia. The AFP’s security posture also must continue to strengthen in line with the increasing threats that come from the challenging geopolitical environment, both in our region and more broadly.

Social change

Community confidence and trust are essential for effective policing, and this challenge exists in the context of ongoing societal changes. While the AFP Community Confidence Survey continues to show strong levels of trust and confidence in the AFP, these changes are broad, fast-paced and often influenced by similar trends occurring at the global level. Social changes can be driven by changing values or norms, demographic shifts, emerging technologies, escalating fears or anxieties, and changing sensitivities to socio-economic conditions, inequalities or rights.

The drivers can in turn manifest in changing demands and expectations on governments and government agencies, like the AFP. In particular, diverse social changes in areas such as social divisions, mental health and wellbeing, institutional trust, illicit drugs, employer expectations, and many other trends, are all shaping the AFP’s approach to addressing particular challenges relating to crime and to engagement with the community. We are witnessing a growing normalisation of violence, including politically motivated acts, with an increased political polarisation across the Australian community.

The AFP adopts proactive community engagement strategies which foster trust and deeper cooperation between law enforcement and communities, particularly with local leaders, supporting open lines of communication and an active role in crime prevention.

Social changes are also driving changes in the AFP itself. As the needs of the Australian community change, recruitment challenges are anticipated with growing competition for members with diverse skill sets, backgrounds and knowledge. By embracing innovation, developing community partnerships, prioritising the attraction of a skills-based workforce, and fostering supportive work environments, the AFP continues to position itself as the law enforcement employer of choice in a competitive employment market.

Economic conditions

Economic conditions, both in Australia and internationally, continue to be impacted by successive geopolitical and social shocks. The growing disparity in wages, education, jobs and housing is creating generational divisions and social instability. New digital currencies have also created opportunities for criminal activity to be hidden and globalised, and for law enforcement to work with existing and new partners to uncover, seize and disrupt. This environment presents opportunities for adversaries to capitalise on vulnerable Australians and hide criminal assets.

These factors have a downstream effect on communities, including the cost of living. As the costs of everyday necessities increase, it is likely that opportunistic actors may capitalise on vulnerable Australians through scams and other fraudulent schemes.

Working with financial intelligence capabilities and partners, the AFP will continue to target threats to national security, including terrorism financing, entities financing foreign interference, and espionage.

The AFP is not immune from macro-economic factors. Inflationary pressures and the cost of doing business can ultimately serve to increase the cost of protecting Australians and Australia’s interests from serious criminal threats. Although this has placed increasing pressure on the AFP, our commitment to meeting operational budget remains firm. The AFP continues to make strategic operational and investment decisions to achieve organisational efficiencies and places high importance on financial management practices and prioritisation of AFP activities to sustainably remain within our budgetary envelope.

Technological change

Technological advancements are accelerating, creating both opportunities and risks that are transforming industries, law enforcement, national security and society itself. Criminals are quick to leverage the opportunities posed by emerging technologies, prompting new and changing threats to our community, infrastructure, businesses and government, including agencies that safeguard the personal information of Australians. Hacking, ransomware attacks, phishing schemes and financial crimes are expected to become more frequent. The AFP will continue to respond to these threats using both innovative and traditional policing methods, including public awareness and education programs to encourage cyber safety.

Violent extremist material and rhetoric online continues to be a significant threat, with young people more susceptible to developing a fixation on violence and hate. Extremist groups are deliberately targeting young and vulnerable individuals for recruitment and radicalisation, particularly online. The AFP must rapidly adapt and adopt new technologies to tackle this challenge.

Within the AFP, technological advances will also provide opportunities for improved operational effectiveness and efficiencies, as well as enhanced services to victims of crime. The integration of various artificial intelligence technologies offers the AFP the opportunity to process lawfully collected data in ways that are currently beyond human scale to ensure community safety and bolster cybersecurity efforts.

In this technology-driven environment, the AFP is focused on ensuring that the adoption of new technologies aligns with legislative frameworks through a cautious and responsible approach, ensuring the proper and ethical adoption of new technologies.

Figure 3 summarises the key trends shaping the AFP operating environment, in the near term and beyond.

Figure 3 Key trends shaping the AFP’s operating environment

Our locations

Figure 4 Domestic locations

• National Headquarters (ACT)
• Office locations:
  • Adelaide Office
  • Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation
  • Australian Institute of Police Management
  • Brisbane Office
  • Cairns Office
  • Darwin Office
  • Gold Coast Office
  • Hobart Office
  • Melbourne Office
  • Perth Office
  • Pinkenba Training Centre
  • Sydney Office
  • Thursday Island Office
• Protection sites
  • Adelaide Airport
  • Australian Parliament House
  • Brisbane Airport
  • Cairns Airport
  • Canberra Airport
  • Darwin Airport
  • Exmouth Defence Facility
  • Geraldton Defence Facility
  • Gold Coast (Coolangatta) Airport
  • The High Court of Australia
  • Kirribilli House
  • The Lodge and other secure establishments
  • Melbourne Airport
  • Perth Airport
  • Pine Gap Defence Facility
  • Sydney Airport
  • Western Sydney Airport
• External Territories
  • Christmas Island
  • Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  • Jervis Bay
  • Norfolk Island

Figure 5 International locations

• AFP Headquarters
• International Posts
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Amman
  • Ankara
  • Bali
  • Bangkok
  • Beijing
  • Beirut
  • Belgrade
  • Bogota
  • Colombo
  • Dubai
  • Guangzhou
  • The Hague
  • Hanoi
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Hong Kong
  • Islamabad
  • Jakarta
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Manila
  • Mexico City
  • New Delhi
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Paris
  • Phnom Penh
  • Pretoria
  • Singapore
  • Suva
  • Vanuatu
  • Vientiane
  • Washington DC
  • Wellington
  • Yangon
• Pacific Bilateral Policing Partnerships / UN
  • Nauru
  • New York - United Nations (UN)
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Samoa
  • Solomon Islands
  • Timor-Leste
  • Tonga
  • Vanuatu
• Secondments
  • Alabama
  • Lyon
  • Pittsburgh
  • Samoa
  • Wellington

Our capabilities

The AFP’s capabilities are crucial to achieving our purpose, now and into the future. Strengthening our ability to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by our operating environment is only possible through the evolution and ongoing development of our capabilities.

AFP Capability Framework

Since the 2024–25 Corporate Plan, the AFP has completed a comprehensive and systematic review of our capability framework and capability set. As shown in Figure 6, the consolidated set comprises 18 core capabilities and associated sub-capabilities, spanning the frontline, operational and enabling aspects of our agency.

Effective governance of these strategic capabilities is critical to effective investment prioritisation and sustainability, reduced duplication, better coordination and access, and general planning and management. Importantly, ongoing monitoring of threats and opportunities and collaboration with subject matter experts is critical to ensuring the AFP strategically maintains the right capabilities in the right places at the right times.

A key body of work for the year ahead is developing updated roadmaps for these capabilities, which is occurring alongside several specific capability projects, including:

• enhancing our data capabilities to optimise operational responsiveness and protect against reputational risk
• strengthening our responsible AI practices by releasing a transparency statement in accordance with the policy for the responsible use of AI in government and enhancing our technology governance to assess the use of emerging and evolving technologies, ensuring associated risks are thoroughly evaluated
• supporting the health and resilience of our workforce through the implementation of the AFP Health and Wellbeing Strategy – Beyond 2024
• shifting from a response-based complaints management model to embedding a prevention culture that fosters psychological and cultural safety
• reviewing our training and leadership curriculums to ensure consistency with contemporary training modalities, technological advancements and best practice to support learning and development initiatives
• enhancing ethical and lawful covert online engagement strategies and capabilities to ensure they can be conducted in the volatile online environment, protecting the community from harm
• streamlining recruitment gateways to drive a holistic approach to our recruitment processes
• transitioning legacy ICT to modern systems and platforms developed in accordance with the2023–2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy, incorporating modern defensible architecture, and enhancing our continuous threat exposure management systems and processes
• continuing to incorporate diversity and inclusion principles in day-to-day practice by implementing the AFP Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023–26.

Figure 6 AFP capability set

Frontline

Capabilities that directly operate at the front line to intervene, disrupt or produce a policing effect in the criminal environment:

• Community Policing
• Crime Prevention
• Specialist Response
• International
• Investigation
• Protection

Operational

Capabilities that are critical to delivering direct or indirect operational support to frontline activity:

• Intelligence
• Forensics
• HUMINT
• Data exploitation
• Tasking and coordination
• Digital exploitation
• Surveillance

Enabling

Capabilities that administer the operation of the AFP enterprise and are foundational to the delivery of any capability:

• Security
• Training & exercising
• Leadership
• Organisational improvement
• Organisational management

Our partnerships

Collaboration and partnerships across public and private, national and international levels are essential to delivering on our purpose. As the AFP’s operating environment evolves and our work diversifies, we will continue to leverage these partnerships to keep Australians and Australia safe.

Across our span of partners we collaborate with:

• Commonwealth partners, including the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Defence and the Australian Border Force, as well as other law enforcement and intelligence related agencies and departments, to deliver against government priorities, including through linked programs, as detailed in our 2025–26 Portfolio Budget Statement
• oversight bodies such as the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, as part of our commitment to having the highest level of integrity, to guarantee compliance with legislative requirements across our systems, processes and personnel
• state and territory law enforcement partners for joint operational matters, information sharing, capability uplift and research, ensuring a strategic and coordinated approach to relevant policy and operations across Australia
• ACT government partners such as the Justice and Community Safety Directorate, the ACT Emergency Services Agency, ACT Corrective Services, ACT Health and the Community Services Directorate, through delivery of policing services to the ACT
• international partners to cooperate and collaborate on shared policing priorities across the Five Eyes Alliance and our offshore network to disrupt crime, and to support our regional Pacific partners for mutual operational assistance, police-led diplomacy, capability development and delivery of the Pacific Police Partnership Program
• non-government partners and academia, to understand best practice and relevant research findings, provide subject matter expert advice and collaborate on capability uplift
• community partners to engage in crime prevention, community awareness and victim support services. This includes conducting information sessions; implementing the online child safety education program ‘ThinkUKnow’; attending major events, university open days and community forums; and establishing community liaison teams specifically tailored for vulnerable groups.

Our risk management and oversight

The AFP navigates layers of uncertainty that influence our operational planning and decision-making processes. Effective risk management enhances the AFP’s ability to anticipate change, mitigate risks and minimise disruption to operations, and therefore enables informed decision-making in uncertain circumstances and underpins the success of the agency.

Through continuous improvement initiatives, the AFP aims to enhance consistency and alignment with Commonwealth and AFP risk management practices and policies.

All AFP members are responsible for identifying and managing risks and ensuring the implementation of risk management processes in line with the AFP Risk Management Framework. The AFP recognises the importance of a strong risk culture to ensure the agency adapts and evolves with the changing environment. The AFP Risk Maturity and Culture Sustainment Plan is supported by a range of initiatives including:

• assessing and prioritising emerging risks for strategic resource allocation
• promoting effective risk management practices and improving the skills of our members through the Risk Champion Network
• conducting annual reviews, adjusting mitigation strategies and strengthening controls based on changes in the risk environment.

The AFP has reviewed and uplifted the enterprise risk descriptions and opportunities to align better with the current risk environment. The AFP tolerance statements have been strengthened, making risk-based decisions and accountability an easier process for members.

AFP enterprise-level risks

Figure 7 provides an overview of the 8 AFP enterprise-level risks and their associated opportunities. Our executive boards, Audit and Risk Committee, governance, and business area management contribute to a holistic risk oversight and assurance process.

Figure 7 Enterprise-level risks

Our performance framework

The AFP’s 3 outcomes defined in the 2025–26 AFP Portfolio Budget Statement describe the key goals the AFP is responsible for delivering. There are 15 performance measures to assess the AFP’s performance against these outcomes. The aim of these measures is to demonstrate the AFP’s operational impact and value to the community.

Operational outcomes

The AFP has defined operational outcomes under 4 categories. These inform our performance measures, which are listed on the following pages.

Changes to the AFP performance measures

The AFP is committed to the ongoing uplift of its performance framework to ensure it remains reflective of the evolving operating environment and the expectations of government and the community. Commencing in the 2025–26 reporting cycle, the AFP’s quantitative performance measures and targets will include ‘partially met’ thresholds (defined below) to support a deeper understanding in assessing the AFP’s performance against these measures. The AFP will publish results against each measure in the Annual Performance Statement in the AFP Annual Report 2025–26.

A variety of other improvements to the AFP performance measures are being considered for inclusion in the 2026–27 performance cycle and beyond.

Outcome 1 National and International Policing

Reduce criminal and national security threats to Australia’s collective economic and societal interests through cooperative policing services, primarily focused on the prevention, detection, disruption, investigation and prosecution of criminal activity.

Program 1.1 Federal Policing

Provide national and international policing services through prevention, disruption, enforcement and response strategies in collaboration with domestic and international partners.

¹ Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services, pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services

Outcome 2 ACT Policing

A safe and secure environment through policing activities on behalf of the Australian Capital Territory Government.

Program 2.1 ACT Community Policing

Provide community policing services in the Australian Capital Territory in partnership with government and community agencies.

Outcome 3 Specialist Protective Services and International Policing Partnerships

Safeguarding Australians and Australian interests through the delivery of policing services primarily focused on protective services, aviation policing and international police partnerships.

Program 3.1 Specialist Protective Services

Provide protective services for official persons and at designated airports, Commonwealth protected locations, institutions and events.

Program 3.2 International Police Assistance and External Territories

Provide policing or policing support services to Jervis Bay, Australia’s external territories and international partners.