Melbourne protestors: Parliamentary sitting, which commences Friday, must discuss Julian Assange

At a protest for Julian Assange, which commenced outside the Victorian State Library at 12:00pm on Sunday 28 September, protestors demanded that the Australian government use the power vested in it as a sovereign national government to make British Prime Minister Liz Truss end the illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange. Unfortunately, as it seems unlikely that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will act to free Julian Assange in the near future, protestors also demanded that the next four-day sitting of Parliament, which commences this coming Friday 23 September, discuss Julian Assange, specifically by debating and voting upon the foreshadowed motion which Labor MP Julian Hill tried to put to Parliament on 10 June 2021, or something similar. This was argued for in a speech, given by James Sinnamon, just before 2pm outside the Melbourne British Consulate at 90 Collins Street. That is where the protestors had marched to from the State Library. The Video of James Sinnamon speaking is embedded below. The transcript of that speech is included below the video.

These critical entities, the Australian Government and Parliament, have abandoned their post under fire. That is a definition of desertion. They are just standing and watching the battle, whilst claiming to be doing all they can for Julian Assange. Inside is a film and transcript of James Sinnamon's speech on this subject in front of the British Consulate in Collins Street, Melbourne, on Sunday 18 September 2022, on UN International Peace Rally, which was hosted by Melbourne4Assange, PEN Melbourne, Anti-AUKUS Coalition VIC, and Extinction Rebellion. Thanks to Raine Cilicia for filming this.

Few people in Australia or the world realise that debate on Julian Assange is being blocked in the Australian Parliament. Motions to debate Assange’s fate are actually being blocked by the major political parties. That means that Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong are misleading you when they imply that everything is being done to help Assange.

James Sinnamon, speaking outside the United Kingdom Consulate in Melbourne on 18 September 2022

What I believe that we also need to focus on, as a movement to free Julian Assange, is our own government and our own parliament. The British Government has the power to free Julian Assange, but so too has the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. 

Julian Assange’s imprisonment in Britain is wholly illegal. There’s no [semblance] of a legality in Julian Assange’s imprisonment. The only [semblance] was that he served 50 weeks for his alleged offense of skipping bail.

Since then, his imprisonment has been totally illegal.

If Prime Minister Albanese rang up the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and demanded Liz Truss release Julian Assange now, I doubt that Liz Truss would dare refuse such a demand from Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese knows full well that he could make Liz Truss release Julian Assange. He could also telephone Joe Biden and tell Biden that his attempt to extradite Julian Assange to the United States is also illegal.

We have to start asking our Prime Minister and the Parliament that he comes from, why won’t they stand up for Julian Assange.

We have in our parliament, a parliamentary caucus in support of Julian Assange - the Bring Home Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Caucus, that supports Julian Assange.  However, our parliament has used bureaucratic rules to prevent them from ever even putting a motion in support of Julian Assange on the floor of our parliament.

What sort of a parliament refuses to allow supporters of Julian Assange, supporters of the most famous Australian in the world, to have their say on the floor of parliament?

What we have to do is tell our parliament, which is sitting next week, from Friday the 23^rd of September, then the following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We have to tell that parliament that we expect them to finally bring themselves to debate Julian Assange!

The people who support Julian Assange in our parliament must tell our parliament why our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, should and can make Britain release Julian Assange now.  By all means, Anthony Albanese and his supporters can try to tell the parliament why they are unable to do anything with Julian Assange. I’d like to see them try – but we have a right to expect this to be discussed in our parliament.

That our parliament won’t even discuss Julian Assange is a disgrace. It should be a disgrace all over the world. 

All over the world, in other countries, people are standing up for Julian Assange, including the President of Mexico.  Mexico City has given Assange’s father, John Shipman, for Julian Assange, the keys to Mexico City, but in Australian Parliament, all our politicians are silent. Those that want to speak up for Julian Assange are muzzled by stupid Parliamentary rules. That is just not good enough.  We have to start holding our politicians to account. Those who stand up for Julian Assange, we’ve got to support. Those who won’t support Julian Assange, […] we’ve got to hold them to account at the next election - and before, if we can.

Thank you.

The title of this article was previously: '(Video and Transcript) James Sinnamon: “Australia’s major parties are stopping parliament from debating Assange’s plight."'