WATCH: Outside Parliament, Australian Politicians Call for Assange’s Release

As Julian Assange continues to languish in a British prison, a growing number of politicians from his native Australia are speaking out against his incarceration and the U.S. espionage indictment against him for publishing defense information.

Australian politicians gathered on the lawn opposite Parliament in Canberra on Monday to call on the Australian government to press the United States to drop its charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and have him freed from London’s Belmarsh prison where he remains on remand pending a U.S. appeal against the decision by a British judge to deny his extradition to Alexandria, Virginia.

Speaking were MP Andrew Wilkie; Senator Peter Whish-Wilson; Senator Janet Rice; Dr. Sue Wareham of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War; Bernard Collaery, former attorney general for the Australian Capital Territory; military whistleblower David McBride; WikiLeaks activist Jacob Grech and Assange’s father, John Shipton.

Consortium News was there to film the event.

Video by Cathy Vogan in Canberra for Consortium News.

 

Video by Raine Cilicia in Canberra for @Melbourne4Wiki.

10 comments for “WATCH: Outside Parliament, Australian Politicians Call for Assange’s Release

  1. Thomas
    March 20, 2021 at 00:20

    Thank GOD that FINALLY!!! SOMEONE OF AUSTRAILIAN prestige and moral conviction other than John Pilger and so few othets, has the ethical and moral fortitude to tell truth to the oblivious political elite, and every man that to let a superpowe bully and torture a citizen of their country without calling it out is moral weakness and corrupt.

  2. Andrew Nichols
    March 19, 2021 at 19:02

    Once again…absolutely no coverage whatsoever in State friendly mass media. Assange is a “banned” person not to be covered at all.

  3. Piotr Berman
    March 19, 2021 at 09:03

    Morrison: Together, we ?commit to promoting ?a free, open ?rules-based order, rooted in ?international law to advance ?security and prosperity and counter threats to both? in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

    Alas, rules do not cover Assange other than one of the “threat”. It is grimly amusing to watch the permutations of “rules based order”, this time “rooted in international law”.

    • jack flanigan
      March 20, 2021 at 06:39

      Piotr

      Alas international law is rooted. Australia is rooted. I fear the world is rooted. Australian was never a country founded on democratic principles. We were all subjects of the British monarchy and, still are. The only reference to citizen in the constitution refer to foreign citizens. Our “citizenship” (if it exists) is a statutory right set out in legislation which may be changed by parliament. Rooted means Rooted and we are. As long as we have football the “she’ll be right”.

      Don’t get me started on the Yanks and their propaganda.

      jack flanigan

  4. Atul Thakker
    March 18, 2021 at 19:16

    I hope everyone realizes that even if Assange is “ freed “, his life’s work led to an utter demoralization of him as a human.
    This vicious and bloodthirsty public lynching serves as a stern reminder to similar minded people, not unlike putting a head on a spike to warn people in dark years of the past.
    He is no longer in jail, as the lesson the US hoped to teach has been learned by all; resist us and all physical, moral, and egalitarian principles will be liquefied by our might.

    • Consortiumnews.com
      March 19, 2021 at 11:49

      False. He is still in jail. And there is every hope among his supporters that if he is freed he will regain his strength and continue his work.

  5. john stanley
    March 18, 2021 at 17:12

    Australia’s acceptance of Assange’s 7 years of solitary confinement is to join those countries that support Nazi practices of torture. It is to join those countries that have such weak governments and uneducated populations that they are subservient, ever obedient provinces
    of larger powers such as the USA and China. Australia the land of gutless governments!

  6. jack flanigan
    March 18, 2021 at 15:32

    I have deep respect for those people standing up for Julian. On the other hand I have nothing but the deepest loathing for each and every member of the two major parties who have done nothing to support Julian. Both of the majors are nothing other than cults. The elected Labor and coalition politicians are gutless, lying, venal two faced bastards.
    I hold the Australian parliament in contempt and sincerely wish each and every member of the majors ill.
    My feelings expressed above are the same towards the mainstream media.

    May you all go to hell.

    jack

    • Piotr Berman
      March 19, 2021 at 09:09

      Lucky you. From behind the oceans, we only see servile faces pronouncing the latest permutation of imperial slogans. But in Australia, they may look more pleasant at times.

  7. Wilbrod Madzura
    March 18, 2021 at 13:05

    What a travesty, an injustice whose enormity leaves one speechless! All engineered and driven by the “full spectrum dominance” and extraterritorial dynamics of US policies. The human element is all but absent, call it scorched earth policy. The contradictions, the gross abuses have been normalized by the lapdogs of US imperialism: the UK, Canada, Australia, etc., ready at the beck and call of the distorted imperatives of the latter. This is more than just about Julian Assange but all humanity imperiled by megalomania. This is terrorism of the first order. The Nazis and Hitler live on, only this time they don a new, even more lethal technologies and justifications, all operating under the “hallowed” system of expropriation, exploitation, and dehumanization- capitalism.

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