Australian taxpayers have paid over 2-million US dollars in the past year to lease more than 80 empty apartments in Port Moresby in the hope Australian police would return to PNG.
About 150 police officers serving in PNG under Australia's Enhanced Cooperation Program withdrew in May last year.
This follows PNG's Supreme Court ruling that their legal immunities were invalid under the constitution.
The Australian government refused to let them stay in frontline tasks without such immunities.
After more than a year of drawn-out negotiations between the Australian and PNG governments, only 10 officers are now tipped to return as advisers.
A police spokeswoman told AAP that the empty apartments cost over 100-thousand US dollars a month to rent and since June last year had cost over 2 million US dollars to keep on hold.
