Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Shoebridge today relating to Julian Assange.

Today Senator Shoebridge, on behalf of the Australian Greens and also on behalf of millions of Australians and even more people around the world, asked a very important question: did our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, raise the political persecution and freeing of Julian Assange with the American President and the UK Prime Minister when he met with them two weeks ago? The answer we had from Senator Wong was that somehow we can't intervene in the extradition of Julian Assange, because there are legal processes underway.

I want to deal with two things here. Firstly, Senator Wong didn't want to answer the question. She didn't want to say yes or no on whether the Prime Minister had raised it. I'll draw my own conclusions from that, as will the Australian people. The answer is almost certainly that it wasn't raised with the American President or the UK Prime Minister, the two men—in fact, they're three men, together—who can make a decision to free Julian Assange.

Secondly, what Senator Wong said in here was rubbish. It is patently false that some legal process being underway prevents a political intervention on behalf of Julian Assange. Let me make this really clear to the Australian Senate: Julian Assange is a political prisoner, and only a political intervention will free him. Our Prime Minister could ask the US President to drop the extradition charges, even while they're underway, and that would be it. Mr Assange would finally walk free.

We also know that in the UK, once a court makes its decision, the final decision on extradition lies with the Prime Minister and the Attorney General. Once again, it's a political decision, so why didn't Mr Albanese raise this with the UK Prime Minister or the US President? He could have ended it two weeks ago for Mr Assange, who's sitting in a maximum-security prison, Belmarsh prison in the UK, for telling the truth. For senators who aren't aware, he is being extradited to the US on espionage charges, the first foreign journalist conducting an activity on foreign soil to ever be extradited to the US. This is not only a massive breach of the US First Amendment—politically persecuting a journalist for doing their job—but an attack on press freedoms all around the planet.

The stakes couldn't be higher on the extradition of Julian Assange, and once again the Australian Greens will stand up in the Australian parliament for Julian Assange and for his family, including Mr John Shipton, who continually comes into parliament, tries to get meetings with members of parliament and works with the parliamentary friends of Assange group. I'd like to acknowledge the work that the parliamentary friends of Assange group do on behalf of Mr Assange. Right across the political spectrum, not just here in Australia but in parliaments all around the world, these groups are forming. As Senator Wong did acknowledge in her response to the question today, there is a very strong public sentiment in this country to free Mr Assange, an Australian citizen and a publisher who was just doing his job.

Senators, we can't let this stand on our watch—that an Australian citizen is seeking his freedom for doing his job, and our government does nothing. Mr Albanese said he agrees enough is enough and wants to see Mr Assange released. Senator Wong has expressed similar sentiments, and they've called for quiet diplomacy. As my colleague Senator Shoebridge asked so well in here today: why are we not putting the question when the three men are together behind closed doors? There couldn't be a better example of quiet diplomacy than those three men discussing the freedom of Julian Assange. So Australians would be very disappointed if Anthony Albanese didn't raise this, and unfortunately it appears from Senator Wong's non-answer to Senator Shoebridge's question today that this issue wasn't clearly enough a priority for the Prime Minister. So the campaign goes on to keep putting pressure on the Prime Minister, on President Biden of the US and on Prime Minister Sunak of the United Kingdom to free Julian Assange, and I call on all Australian people who care about democracy and press freedoms to continue to push their MPs to bring Julian Assange home.

Question agreed to.