Commonwealth policing, since its turbulent emergence in Australia in 1917, has shown both a keen capacity to suppress dissent and a remarkable ability to reinvent itself in a variety of forms. Its present nomenclature of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) arose from an alleged terrorist incident: the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing. This article argues that the fragmented AFP faced an ill‐defined and uncertain future in the early 1990s. Since September 11, the revamped AFP, however, has claimed primacy as Australia's leading law enforcement agency, but remains susceptible to government pressure. Contemporary Australian debate has focused on intelligence agency legislation, but limited analysis has addressed the AFP's changing role, expanded powers and significantly increased budgetary resources. As terrorism, national security and people smuggling have become the new “law and order'’ federal agenda, the AFP, straining to accomplish both domestic and regional functions, has extended its transnational, off‐shor...