The Australian Federal Police has been hosting “gender workshops” across in Asia amid growing concerns about its capability to combat Islamic terrorism.
The AFP took to social media on Wednesday to share images of its International Gender Team with Muslim women in hijabs after “gender and anti-corruption workshops” for “anti-corruption and law enforcement partners”, which have been held in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Fiji and the Philippines.
“The workshops bring together government, law enforcement and community representatives to examine how corruption can impact men and women differently and how a gender-informed approach can strengthen anti-corruption efforts from law enforcement,” the AFP said.
The post, which included the hashtag “genderequality”, attracted critical comments on Facebook before they were deleted and commenting disabled, with the page writing: “We’ve turned off comments because a moderator is unavailable.”
The AFP has been under scrutiny in recent days after a submission to the royal commission on anti-Semitism from a former senior counter-terrorism officer alleged the agency was aware of severe staff shortages, including “critical vacancies”, in the lead-up to the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
The submission also raised concerns about counter-terrorism resourcing priorities due to the AFP being required to “balance” the threat of Islamic terrorism with that of so-called right-wing extremism, News24.com.au reported.
“The commission may further wish to examine whether existing governance arrangements provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that operational policing decisions, intelligence assessments and public communications remain operationally independent and are not influenced, or perceived to be influenced, by external considerations,” the ex-commander wrote.
“Public confidence in Australia’s national policing agency depends upon both operational independence and the perception of operational independence.”
The AFP revealed in written answers to the royal commission last month that it spent $152 million on Counter Terrorism in 2024-25, compared to $523 million on Protection – guarding politicians and government buildings – out of a total of $1.87 billion.
The second largest spend was $305 million on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime (TSOC), followed by $279 million on ACT Policing and $164 million on International Missions.
Earlier this week Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced the AFP’s latest Corporate Plan and laid out her top five priorities, which included “social cohesion” and “supercharging global operations”, but not counter-terrorism.
Ms Barrett was criticised after the ISIS-inspired Bondi massacre for saying it had nothing to do with Islam, and for arresting Aussies for social media posts while the father-and-son gunmen were planning their attack undetected.
Header image: The International Gender Team in Asia (AFP).
