Labor MPs campaigning to bring Julian Assange home say there appears to have been a shift in approach from ministers to back the WikiLeaks founder and they are heartened by work going on behind the scenes.
The United Kingdom has approved Assange’s extradition to the United States, where he would face charges under the Espionage Act, laid under the Trump administration, relating to the leaking and publication of the WikiLeaks cables a decade ago.
Federal Labor MPs will continue pushing for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to return to Australia.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
His legal team is expected to appeal the decision.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday he stood by comments he made about Assange in December, when he said “enough is enough” and that it was time for the publisher to be returned to Australia.
His government has been working behind the scenes to raise the case with US officials. Albanese wouldn’t comment on that, saying he would “lead a government that engages diplomatically and appropriately with our partners”.
“There are some people who think that if you put things in capital letters on Twitter and put an exclamation mark, that somehow makes it more important. It doesn’t,” he said.
Assange is accused of helping former US soldier Chelsea Manning obtain and leak classified information on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Manning had her sentence commuted by former US president Barack Obama in 2017. Assange sought political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012 and lived there until being arrested and taken to Belmarsh Prison in 2019.
Labor MPs who were part of the formal Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group in the previous term of parliament said they were pleased there seemed to have been a shift.
Josh Wilson, who holds the West Australian seat of Fremantle, said there were important issues of free speech and free press at play.
“There’s no purpose or justice served by Julian Assange being subject to these proceedings any longer,” he said.
He was heartened by a statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, which said in part the government was clear in its view the case “has dragged on for too long and that it should be brought to a close”.
The member for Macquarie in Sydney’s Hawkesbury region, Susan Templeman, who has also campaigned for Assange’s return, said the government had put that view to the US and UK “and will continue to do so in a diplomatic and appropriate way”.
“As a former journalist reporting in the Canberra press gallery and overseas in the 1980s, this for me is much less about one individual; it’s more about principles, journalistic freedoms and human rights,” she said.
Adelaide MP Steve Georganas said the “quiet diplomacy” taking place was the best approach.
The parliamentary group would continue to advocate for justice for Assange, Georganas said.
“He is an Australian citizen and we should be doing all we can to make sure he has every bit of legal assistance et cetera and that the quiet diplomacy should be taking place to make sure he has the right justice and that this horrible story comes to an end,” he said.
Albanese was listed as a supporter, but not a formal member, of the Bring Julian Assange Home group in the previous parliament
Assange’s wife Stella expects to see her husband in Belmarsh Prison on Tuesday London time for the first time since the extradition approval. She is worried about his deteriorating health and said his family would continue to push the Australian government to keep up its efforts.
“Really, the only end result is his freedom,” she told Radio National. “I’m feeling definitely that there’s a shift. It feels like we’ve been running a marathon for a long time … but now it feels like we have many people running alongside us and we might see the finish line.”
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