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

It's the last week of federal parliament. It's the last week of federal parliament under a new Labor Albanese government. Sadly, and frustratingly, Australian Walkley Award winning journalist, publisher and citizen Julian Assange still sits in Belmarsh maximum-security prison in the UK, without having been charged. He's the world's most famous political prisoner. What are we doing to help Julian? The Albanese government have said publicly that he's suffered enough and that this has to come to an end, but what pressure are they exerting on our US and UK allies to release Julian Assange?

Standing in the Australian Senate, I want to say to Julian: we are not giving up the fight for you. If anything, we are ramping it up. I've just come from a parliamentary friends of Assange group meeting with over 35 MPs who are now participating. The movie Ithika, about your amazing father, John Shipton, and your family and their fight for you, is starting to show across cinemas in Germany early next year and across cinemas in the US. The world is waking up to this egregious abuse of power, this injustice. They are waking up to the fact that you only published the truth and that what you published has actually helped us understand the systems and the institutions that we're all part of and has helped the world become a better place. We are not giving up the fight for you, Julian. Stay strong over Christmas. Whether you are in Belmarsh prison or in a US maximum-security prison, we are thinking of you and we are there for you.