For how much longer can your Parliament remain silent about the monstrous treatment of Julian Assange?

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this coming week, the national Parliament of Australia, the country of which Julian Assange is a citizen, will be sitting. Around the world, there is a huge popular outcry in support of Julian Assange. This includes other governments and parliaments, including the government of Mexico, the Mexico City Council and the German Bundestag. They have all demanded of the British Government that it end its illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange and, of the United States' government, that it end its illegal attempts to extradite Julian Assange.

Within Australia, the Melbourne City Council and the NSW Randwick Council have passed motions demanding that the Australian government act to free Julian Assange, whilst the upper House of the South Australian Parliament has debated Julian Assange.

In stark contrast, almost nothing has ever been said of Julian Assange in Australia's Parliament.

The one government in the world which could end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange is the Australian government

In fact, the one government in the world with the power to end the illegal persecution of Julian Assange, is the Australian government. At any time since the overt persecution of Julian Assange commenced in 2010 the Australian government could have used the power vested in it to make the Swedish, British and American governments end their illegal persecution and subsequent imprisonment of Julian Assange, but all governments, including the current Labor government of Anthony Albanese have failed to do so.

It is hard to envision how, had the Australian government, 10 years ago, when Julian Assange first sought asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy, demanded of the British Government that it allow Julian Assange to go to Heathrow airport in order to fly home, that the British government would not have complied.

At any time since then, had any one of the successive Australian governments demanded of the UK government that it end its monstrous treatment of Julian Assange, it almost certainly would have seen no choice but to comply and Julian would be free today.

The failure of this, and previous, governments to act to end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange is of great concern to many in the Australian communmity and to the 41 members of our federal Parliament who form the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group. [1]

Debate on Julian Assange prevented by your Parliament on at least 4 occasions since 2020

On at least four occasions since February 2020, members of Parliament have tried to put, to Parliament, motions calling on the Australian government to act to free Julian Assange, but on each occasion, arcane rules were used to prevent these motions from even being put. The latest attempt was made on 2 December 2021 by Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie. Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion, which was disallowed, is included below as an Appendix.

Melbourne protest: Parliament must debate Government's failure to end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange

Demand your Parliament debate Julian Assange this week

No attempt to raise the issue of Julian Assange during the last 3 day sitting in either the House of Representatives (25 Oct, 26 Oct, 27 Oct) or the Senate (25 Oct, 26 Oct, 27 Oct), however given the dire emergency faced by Julian Assange in his current prison cirmumstance, members of the Bring Julian Assange Support Parliamentary Support Group could still be contacted and persuaded to make an attempt this week.

As I posted to Steve Georganas and other members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group on 28 September 2022:

Dear Steve Georganas,

This is further to an email I sent you last Thursday 22 September. I have appended to the end of this email a copy of an article I posted to my web-site https://candobetter.net/. It has the same title as the subject of this email "South Australia's Parliament to debate Julian Assange's plight this coming Wednesday - Why won't Canberra?"

Given that, at 12pm, this coming Wednesday (today) South Australia's Parliament will be debating a motion in support of Julian Assange, surely the case for our Federal Parliament also discussing the plight of Julian Assange, and voting upon it, is as strong as it could ever have been.

So, could I urge you and other members of the "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" to, once again, move for a Suspension of Standing Orders so that Andrew Wikie's foreshadowed motion of 2 December 2021 can be put, debated and then voted upon.

As I wrote previously, if the procedural motion is lost, then, this time, call for a division. At least, then, the Australian public would be able to learn which of their elected representatives support free speech on the floors of our Parliament and which, to paraphrase Voltaire, will "fight to the death to prevent those views being heard."

Just possibly, if a division is called for, we may well find the number of members opposed to the motion being put will have been reduced to a minority.

Then the case for the Australian Government acting to end the illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange will be finally heard on the floors of our Parliament. Then, who knows? We may even see Andrew Wilkie's motion carried and, from that, the Australian government made to act to end the illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange.

Yours faithfully,

James Sinnamon

So, for this coming week until Thursday, please contact your MP, your state Senators and as many of the 41 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group as you are able, and urge each of them to support the motion in support of Julian Assange or at least, to vote to allow it to be debated.

Appendix: Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion of 2 Dec 2021 in support of Julian Assange

On 2 December 2021, independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie tried to move the follwing motion in support of Julian Assange:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Walkley Award winning Australian journalist, Mr Julian Assange, remains incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh in the United Kingdom, despite a British Court earlier this year finding that Mr Assange could not be extradited to the United States of America for health reasons;

(b) the US continues to pursue Mr Assange and has recently been back in court in the UK appealing the earlier decision to refuse the extradition;

(c) the reason for the US's determination to extradite Mr Assange is limited to Wikileaks' exposes in 2010 and 2011 of US war crimes and other misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo Bay, including the release of the 'Collateral Murder' video in which a US helicopter in Iraq gunned down innocent civilians including journalists;

(d) recent revelations in the media show the Central Intelligence Agency developed plans to abduct and assassinate Mr Assange; and

(e) the continuing incarceration of Mr Assange, and any extradition to the US, would not only be a grave injustice but a severe threat to his health and life; and

(2) calls on the Prime Minister to:

(a) speak directly with his counterparts in the US and UK to bring an end to this madness, including the US dropping all charges against Mr Assange and the UK allowing his immediate release; and

(b) commit to not allow the extradition of Mr Assange to the US from Australia.

Parliament did not even allow the above motion to even be put. Surely only a mover and one or two seconders should have been all that was required by reasonable parliamentary procedural rules. However the complex Parliamentary procedural rules serve to prevent motions about matters that those in control of the major parties don't want discussed from being put.

Footnote[s]

[1] The 41 members include current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Given Anthony Albanese's failure, in the 5 months since he won government on 21 May, to use the power vested in him to make the British Government end its illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange, his membership of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group is now, at best, questionable.