Senate on 4/08/2022
Item: QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE – Assange, Mr Julian Paul
Questioner: Shoebridge, Sen David
Answer: Farrell, Sen Don
Assange, Mr Julian Paul
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (14:20): My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Farrell. The Prime Minister has said that the government has been working behind the scenes and engaging in quiet diplomacy regarding the extradition of Julian Assange. But quiet diplomacy can’t be no diplomacy. What exactly is the government doing to secure the release of this Australian citizen, journalist and whistleblower?
Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Minister for Trade and Tourism, Special Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:20): I thank Senator Shoebridge for his question and congratulate him on his election. I think this might be your first question, and it’s on a very important topic and that relates to Mr Julian Assange. The Australian government have been clear in our view that Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and that it should now be brought to a close. This is the view that we continue to convey to the governments of both the United Kingdom and the United States, along with our expectations that Mr Assange is entitled to due process, humane and fair treatment, access to proper medical care and access to his legal team.
But, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, not all foreign affairs is best conducted with a loudhailer or a megaphone, as we saw from the previous government. It’s also worth noting that the extradition case is between the United States and the United Kingdom, a legal system that we respect. Australia, of course, is not a party to Mr Assange’s case, and, as the legal operations still stand, our government, I’m advised, cannot intervene in the legal matters of another country, just as we wouldn’t want those countries to intervene in our legal process. We will continue to monitor the case closely and we continue to seek assurances from the United Kingdom government about Mr Assange’s welfare and his treatment.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, a first supplementary question?
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (14:22): Mr Assange’s family has been seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Albanese. In fact, they’re here in the building, and I acknowledge his father, John Shipton, and brother, Gabriel, who are in the chamber just behind us. Why won’t the Prime Minister meet with the family and hear directly their concerns, which challenge what you say: concerns about Mr Assange’s health, his safety and his future? Why won’t you meet?
Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Minister for Trade and Tourism, Special Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:23): I have met—
Senator Shoebridge: No, the Prime Minister.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, you are disorderly. If you have a point of order, stand and make it. You don’t just stand up and shout out.
Senator Whish-Wilson: I’ll tell you what’s disorderly: it’s no action.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Whish-Wilson. Minister.
Senator FARRELL: The Prime Minister can speak for himself on this issue, but I have met Mr Shipton. I met him a couple of years ago.
Senator Shoebridge: No. You’re here representing him.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, please resume your seat. You don’t half-stand and then start shouting out a point of order. In this chamber you stand and you wait for the call. If you would like to stand, I will call your name and then, if you have a point of order, please make it. Senator Shoebridge.
Senator Shoebridge: Point of order, President. The minister is here in his capacity representing the Prime Minister. That was what was put to the minister, and he was not being relevant in his answer.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Shoebridge. I believe the minister is being relevant. I will continue to listen carefully, and, if he is not relevant, I will point that out to him. Minister.
Senator FARRELL: I have met Mr Shipton. It was a very moving meeting, and I personally can’t think what it would be like to have one of my children incarcerated like Mr Assange has been incarcerated. As I’ve said before, we don’t control the legal systems of other countries. We’re offering all the support that we can for Mr Shipton’s son under the consular arrangements, and the Prime Minister has said he wants an end to these proceedings. I don’t think he can be clearer than— (Time expired)
The PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, a second supplementary question?
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (14:25): The Prime Minister has previously said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and you’ve repeated it here today, Senator. The government has previously called for the USA to bring the matter to a close. By bringing matters to a close, do you mean allowing Mr Assange extradited to the USA, charged and convicted, sentenced to over a century in jail, and then perhaps seeking a prison transfer?
Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Minister for Trade and Tourism, Special Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:25): I thank Senator Shoebridge for his question. The prime minister has been extremely clear about what the policy and the position of the Australian government is. We want to bring this matter to a close.
I think it’s worth making a couple of points. In June 2019 Mr Assange withdrew his consent for us to inquire about his health and his personal circumstances, and we’ve sought to receive assurances—
Senator Shoebridge: You’re blaming him.
Senator FARRELL: No, I am not blaming him, Senator Shoebridge. I’m simply pointing out that he withdrew consular assistance that the Australian government was providing.
Honourable senators interjecting—
Senator Shoebridge: I’ve told you what I’ve done; I’ve met with Mr Shipton.
The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister Farrell, please direct your answers to the chair. I believe that time has expired.
°°°°
Chamber: Senate on 4/08/2022
Item: QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS – Assange, Mr Julian Paul
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (15:35): I move:
That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Trade and Tourism (Senator Farrell) to a question without notice he asked today relating to Mr Julian Assange.
The Australian Greens will continue to call on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to just pick up the phone, call the UK and US governments and work to obtain Julian Assange’s freedom.
The answers given today by Senator Farrell on behalf of the Prime Minister lead to some very disturbing conclusions. The most disturbing conclusion is that it appears quiet diplomacy, at least so far as Senator Farrell has been briefed, amounts to very little, if any, diplomacy.
And the very troubling conclusion we have from the government’s answers in the Senate today is that their intention is to, so-called, bring this matter to a close but to bring it to a close by doing nothing to prevent the extradition of an Australian citizen, Julian Assange; by doing nothing to prevent his charging, his prosecution and his conviction in a US court; and by doing nothing to prevent him being sentenced for up to 175 years in jail, for the crime of telling the truth.
For the Australian government to do nothing when that’s the fate of an Australian citizen today—and whether or not you like Julian Assange, let’s be clear to every Australian citizen that today the Australian government abandons Julian Assange, but tomorrow it might be your son or your brother or your father, or your daughter or your cousin or your friend.
Once the Australian government sets the standard so low that they are willing to do nothing, nothing, when two of our closest allies between them are extraditing, persecuting, charging and potentially jailing for life an Australian citizen who did nothing other than expose the war crimes of the United States government, what will they do next? Who will they betray next?
What is equally troubling is that we had a change of government here in Australia. We have gone from heavily conservative to notionally Labor. In the United States it’s gone from Trumpian to the Biden administration.
The 18 charges that Julian Assange is facing were all laid under the former Trump presidency by the US Department of Justice—18 charges brought by Donald Trump’s administration against an Australian citizen, trying to put him in jail for 175 years for an alleged crime that never happened on US soil, that the US government has admitted never harmed a US citizen.
All it did—but it was a powerful thing—was tell the truth about US war crimes and expose the evidence and the disclosures from former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning that detailed appalling war crimes and human rights abuses committed by the US government. Julian’s crime, if you can call it that, is telling the rest of the world the ugly truth about the war.
The US seeks Julian’s extradition from the UK, and, in that process itself, Julian’s rights have been abused. He’s now been held for three years in maximum security in Belmarsh Prison and, if convicted, faces effectively a death sentence.
Yet the speaking notes given to Senator Farrell are that the Australian government is satisfied about Julian Assange’s health and is satisfied that his health and welfare are being looked after in the system. How could you be satisfied?
Three years in maximum security, potentially another lifetime in maximum security, when all of the evidence shows that Julian has seriously deteriorating health—evidence that was accepted by the UK courts, clearly accepted by the UK courts.
The evidence is that his rapidly deteriorating health is actually due to the prolonged arbitrary detention. It amounts simply to torture. Indeed, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer, has stated that Julian is a victim of ongoing psychological torture.
That’s not the Greens; it’s not Julian’s lawyers; it’s the UN special rapporteur on torture who said that. UK magistrates and the high court have accepted expert testimony—it’s not challenged—that, if extradition were to become imminent, Julian would have an irresistible urge to take his own life.
I say to Julian if you’re listening: the movement is growing to free you. You have more friends than ever in this parliament to free you. It’s about time that your government and your Prime Minister understood their obligation to Australian citizens.
Question agreed to.
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