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

Senators, I literally got a text 30 seconds ago to tell me that Julian Assange has just landed at the airport in Canberra. Yes, it's a momentous moment. Perhaps I could start by acknowledging the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese; Stephen Smith, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; Kevin Rudd; and everyone in the Labor Party who has worked to make this happen. It shows exactly the kind of courage, conviction and leadership that Australians want to see from their Prime Minister. Thank you.

I'm overwhelmed—I really am overwhelmed—especially as this has happened, completely by coincidence, when I was going to be giving an adjournment speech on exactly this issue. I might start by thanking some people, because that's an easy thing to do. There have been so many Australians—many, many thousands of them—who have campaigned for Julian's release, and there have been millions of people around the world who have done so: stakeholder groups, unions, universities, academics and politicians.

I met with Julian's father, John Shipton, seven years ago in my office in Canberra. He could secure only two meetings the first time he came to Canberra—with me and with fellow Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie. No-one wanted to know Julian Assange back then, seven years ago. It was a really tough time, but he persisted. We persisted. We started a parliamentary friends group. We built a political alliance that has over 50 members now, and more than a third of the MPs in this parliament signed a letter for us to take to Washington last year. That's what we can do when we work together on an issue that we care about, and I do think we need to acknowledge that tonight.

There are so many people that I can't thank them in three minutes, but I would especially like to thank ex-senator Scott Ludlam, who came before me, for all the work he did on Julian Assange, and, of course, Felicity Ruby, who used to work for Scott and has been one of his fiercest and strongest advocates and has helped us with our campaign. But there are so many others. Many were on that plane with Mr Assange. Many of them will be standing with the Prime Minister tonight at a press conference. But I am so glad that he is home.

I will express some disappointment that he had to plead guilty to a charge of espionage. I do think that a journalist and a publisher having to plead to espionage is a very dangerous precedent. This is a precedent. The US has never ever used its Espionage Act in over 100 years to pursue a foreign journalist for activities on foreign soil. But he did it because he needed to be home with his family. I accept that and understand that, and the fight to clear his name and clear this charge will continue.

I will use a quote to perhaps sum up why this campaign that I've been involved in for the last seven years with so many good people is so meaningful to me, and I go back to the Iraq war, the thing I've felt most strongly about in my life. There's a quote that says: 'Truth is treason in an empire of lies.' In this day and age, it's hard to meet people who don't believe that we live in an empire of lies, when they look at politicians and they talk to you. There is the age of Trump in the US, and I could go on, and you all understand it: people want to see integrity and honesty in politics.

What WikiLeaks did was publish facts. You may disagree with that, but they published facts. And media saw that these facts were in the public interest, and journalists all around the world, including many in Australia who even won Walkley awards, published that information. The information that WikiLeaks published and that Julian Assange has been persecuted for saved lies in the US and saved lives in Iraq, and it ultimately ended the war in Iraq.

The great truth-teller of that war has been behind bars in solitary confinement, but tonight he is home in Australia to be with his family. I wish Julian the best. I wish his wife, Stella, the best. What a wonderful woman she is. He's a very lucky human being to have Stella in his life. She has led this campaign. His two children will see their father outside prison for the first time in their lives tonight in Canberra when he steps off that plane on the tarmac. I wish them all the best in their new life, and I thank him for being there for us, for what he has endured and for telling the truth. I hope we have more debates in this place about Julian and the importance of what we've seen here tonight.