How a rainbow coalition of Australian politicians came together to push for Julian Assange’s freedom

n late 2012 I had a call from John Shipton, Julian Assange’s father. I had done some advocacy on the Assange case for the Australian Lawyers Alliance. John wanted to know if I would run Julian’sfederal election. From that time on I have worked with John, Julian’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, the lawyer Steve Kenny and others to help bring an end to the US pursuit of Assange for publishing material which clearly implicated that nation in war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Certainly, Malcolm Turnbull, for whom I ran the republic referendum campaign in 1999, took an interest in the case and the former foreign minister Julie Bishop acted professionally in dealing with Julian’s case. But there seemed to be disdain on the part of the Australian high commissioner in London, George Brandis, and his equivalent in Washington, Joe Hockey. On Wednesday Penny Wong, the foreign minister, paid respect to Bishop’s successor Marise Payne’s “persistent diplomacy”.

But the rainbow political coalition supporting Assange was not surprising to me. Assange’s plight attracted rule-of-law types, the former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce being one, who were troubled by the US seeking to prosecute an Australian citizen who had not published from the US.

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