George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In less than two weeks time the member for Clark and I will travel at our own expense to meet with Australian citizen and journalist-publisher Julian Assange, who is being detained in Belmarsh prison in London. The social visit with Mr Assange will take place on Sunday 16 February. We want to see firsthand how Mr Assange is fairing, because of a number of concerning reports about his health and the severity of his treatment within the UK prison system. We appreciate the cooperation of the British authorities at Belmarsh in confirming our social visit.

My concern is that a foreign country, the US, is seeking to extradite an Australian citizen from another foreign country for breaching laws of a foreign country that they were not subject to as they were not in that country, the US, to breach those laws. What is the alleged breach? It is the receipt of information that was in the public interest that he then published. That should not be a crime. It is my view and the view of the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home Group that extradition proceedings should cease and Mr Assange should be brought back to Australia. Mr Assange has been pursued for 10 years, and he spent more than six years holed up in an Ecuadorian embassy ahead of his arrest and imprisonment at Belmarsh. Mr Assange must now be allowed to return home.