FROM Saturday, NSW police officers will withdraw assistance from ACT Policing, escalating industrial action against the federal government over a failure to fix a long-standing tax issue that prevents officers from saving superannuation for their retirement. 

“We have gone out of our way to keep assisting ACT police officers because we see  them as the same as us; hard working men and women that risk their lives on every  shift to protect their community. But something’s got to give.” Police Association of  NSW secretary Pat Gooley said. 

Since June 30, NSW police have withdrawn their support from Commonwealth agencies including the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, Border Force and the Attorney-General’s Department, but continued to assist ACT Policing. 

Under the escalated industrial action, from Saturday:  

• NSW police officers will not serve any documents or process on behalf of any  Commonwealth Agency – that most frequently being ACT Policing 
• NSW police officers will not assist in cross-border operations, surge operations or public order operations 
• Federal Police prisoners will be accepted by NSW police officers, but they will not charge them. 
• All exchanges of information will cease with any agency, save for the risk of  immediate harm. 
• In addition, NSW police officers will be far stricter in the application of the previous  guidelines including (but not limited to) not assisting in the controlled delivery of substituted illicit drugs or other items, executing search warrants or other process  including arrest where there is no need for a specialist tactical resource, involvement in Commonwealth investigations, transporting AFP prisoners and more.  

“Our members will still provide assistance where it involves the safety or welfare of a person, but outside of that, we have to withdraw our assistance,” said Gooley. 

“The Federal government have been on notice since July last year and will need to forward deploy resources to address the shortfall left by NSW Police withholding  services.”

Gooley says the industrial action was undertaken when the federal government failed to resolve a tax problem that hits police officers with hugely inflated tax bills, preventing them from making superannuation contributions and denying access to essential support such as childcare rebates, child support, parental leave and health rebates. 

Police officers in NSW are covered by a mandatory  death and disability insurance policy. The federal government counts those  insurance premiums as contributions to police officers’ superannuation, even though that money is paid directly to the insurance company. 

Gooley says this has a disproportionate effect on female police officers and police officers with children, in particular single mothers.  

Failure by the federal government to fix the issue by end of financial year has  meant police officers across NSW have started receiving tax bills inflated by thousands of dollars.