There are two critical facts which, to me, don't seem to have been taken into account by many of those, both here and overseas, who are fighting for Julian Assange's freedom. Had these facts been understood and then acted upon, I believe that Julian Assange would be free today or, at worst, our prospects of freeing him in the near future would be much greater than what is now the case.
The facts are (1) that should it choose to, the Australian government could, today, make the British government end its illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange; and (2) supporters of Julian Assange have been gagged by the Australian Parliament.
The latter I consider the most outrageous. Whilst I have come to expect governments to often act contrary to the interests of their citizenry, when this occurs I have come to expect, of a substantial number of MPs and senators, that they speak up to hold the government to account for this.
In circumstances where the government has failed to use the powers vested in it to prevent another country behaving so monstrously towards a citizen of this country, as the British government has towards Julian Assange, then a sizeable proportion of that parliament should express outrage, at least until such time as the government begins to act as it should.
But this has not been the case. An examination of Hansard shows that very little has been said of Julian Assange in the last 12 months, Julian Assange has been mentioned on only 8 occasions, very briefly. There has been no further attempt to move any motion in suppport of Julian Assange. Update, 9 December 2022: The efforts of Senator Peter Whish-Wilson seem quite impressive. See embedded twitter post below.
Just tabled a petition in the Senate with over 200 000 signatures to bring #Assange home. pic.twitter.com/2p73f0ThiB
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) November 13, 2019
If there were to be more efforts like this on the part of other members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group, far greater numbers of the Australian community would be vocally demanding action from the government.
My efforts to persuade members of the Julian Assange Support Group to at least try to move a motion in support of Assange
I have been trying, for at least as far back as September, to contact the 39 members of the "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group," in order to persuade some of them to try one more time to raise the issue of Julian Assange in Parliament
From today, there are two sitting days of the House of Representatives and three sitting days of the Senate left before the Christmas break. As a matter of urgency, those who support Assange should contact as many as we can of the 39 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group, and urge each of them, once again, to try to put to Parliament a motion in support of Julian Assange. I include below a motion which could be adapted and put to either house of Parliament. It is the foreshadowed motion which independent Tasmanian Senator Andrew Wilkie tried unsuccessfully to put to Parliament 12 months ago on 2 December 2021.
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.
(motion ends)
Those opposed to Andrew Wilkie's motion back then could have taken the opportunity to explain to the House of Representatives why they thought that Andrew Wilkie was wrong, but they did not. The only people who said anything in the debate were Wilkie himself and the motion's seconder Adam Bandt. Those opposed to the motion said nothing whatsoever, and just used their numbers to defeat Wilkie's motion and prevent him from being able to put the case for Julian Assange.
Unfortunately, after Wilkie's procedural motion was defeated, a division was not called for. Because of this failure to call for a division, we were unable to learn the names of those MPs who were opposed to free speech about such as vital issue for Australia. Should a procedural motion for a debate on Julian Assange again be disallowed, at least this time a division should be called for, so that this time we will at least know the names of those MPs and Senators who have opposed to free speech on the floors of Parliament, about such a critical issue.
I include below, as an Appendix, a copy of a letter, which I have sent to 39 members of the Julian Assange. Those who want could send a copy of this email or an adapation of it, to those MPs and Senators listed below.
Appendix 1: Letter to MPs urging an attempt to lift the gag on discussion about Julian Asange
I sent an email, similar to the following, to the 39 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamenary Support Group
Dear Senator Lidia Thorpe,
I am writing to you as your name appears on the list of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group.
As you are aware, there are only four more days for Parliament to sit, before the Christmas break. After the House breaks up on Thursday and the Senate breaks up on Friday, Parliament won't meet for two more months. That would be two more months during which the monstrous health-debilitating treatment of Jullian Assange in solitary confinement would needlessly continue.
I say 'needlessly continue', because I believe that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could make the British Government Australian free Julian Assange today if he chose to and I believe he knows this.
All he need do is tell UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, that the British Government's imprisonment of Julian Assange since April 2020, is without any legal basis whatsoever. This is because two-and-a half years ago, after Julian Assange had completed his 50 weeks maximum sentence for his supposed misdemeanor of skipping bail in 2012, His continued imprisonment since then is wholly illegal.
Anthony Albanese could demand that Sunak release Julian Assange immediately. In the unlikely event that Sunak refused, the Prime Minister would have recourse to either the United Nations or the International Criminal Court (ICC) where the British Government would quickly find that it did not have a leg to stand on.
Had the Prime Minister done so, Julian Assange would be free today.
However, he has not, so it is urgent that he be held to account before Parliament for what appears to be a grave dereliction of duty on his part.
Twelve months ago, independent Tasmanian member Andrew Wilkie tried to do just that with the previous Liberal/National government of Prime Minister Scott Morison. He attempted to move the following motion (which is also included in the Appendix):
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.
Of course, Andrew Wilkie was not attempting to impose his own opinion on the House regardless of the views of the majority. He was simply trying to put to the House his view that the imprisonment of Julian Assange was unjust and proposing a way that the Australian government could act to end this unjust imprisonment.
Had the then Prime Minister Scott Morison truly known that he had done all that he could have done and should have done to free Julian Assange, the Government could have simply used the occasion to explain this to those in Parliament who believed otherwise. Instead the Government and, apparently, many on the Opposition benches voted to not even allow Andrew Wilkie's motion to be put.
I can only conclude that Scott Morison had something to hide and I consider this conduct completely contrary to how a representative Parliamentary democracy should function. Sadly, these circumstances appear not to have changed with the change of government last May.
I am asking you and other members of the Bring Julian Assange Parliamentary Working Group this week to,again, try to have Wilkie's motion, or an updated adaptation of his motion, put to both Houses of Parliament. Should the necessary procedural motion be carried, and the motion put, debated and voted, then regardless of whether or not that motion is carried, the broader Australian community will be left in no doubt of the case for Julian Assange and that this government could free Julian Assange if it chose to. .The broader international community would know that there are members of the Australian Parliament who want to fight to free Julian Assange and this would greatly lift their morale.
Of course, I fear that the necessary motion for the suspension of standing orders will be lost. In that event, a division should be called for.
If a division were called for, then it would be possible to find the names of those members and senators who are opposed to free speech in Parliament.
Regardless of how the votes go, I believe it would greatly lift the morale of the International movement to free Julian Assange and help bring about his freedom sooner.
Thank you for your attention,
Yours faithfully,
James Sinnamon
Appendix 2: Members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group
For further information, please visit the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group.web site.
Mr Andrew Wilkie MPMrs Bridget Archer MP
Mr Adam Bandt MP
Senator the Hon Carol Brown
Senator Mehreen Faruqi
Mr Steve Georganas MP
Dr Helen Haines MP
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Mr Julian Hill MP
Mr Peter Khalil MP
Senator Nick McKiebm
Ms Zali Steggall OAM
Senator Janet Rice
Ms Rebekha Sharkie MP
Senator Jordon Steele-John
Ms Susan Templeman MPr
Senator Lidia Thorpe
Ms Maria Vamvakinou MP
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson
Mr Josh Wilson MP Fremantle
Mr Tony Zappia MP Makin
Senator Penny Allman-Payne
Mr Stephen Bates MP
Senator the Hon Matthew Canavan
Mr Max Chandler-Mather
Ms Kate Chaney MP
Senator Dorinda Cox
Hon Justine Elliot MP
Mr Brian Mitchell
Senator David Pocock
Senator Barbara Pocock
Senator Malcolm Roberts
Dr Monique Ryan MP
Dr Sophie Scamps MP
Senator David Shoebridge
Ms Kylea Tink MP
Senator Larissa Waters
Ms Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP
Senator Linda White
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