Dear Andrew Wilkie,
On 9 June you said, "Its deeply disappointing that the United
Kingdom High Court has denied Julian Assange the right to appeal
his extradition to the United States.
Mr Assange is an Australian citizen and journalist, whose matter
should not even be before a court, as the case has always been an
intensely political matter. Enough is enough. The US must drop the
extradition and discontinue these charges immediately. And the
Australian Government must continue to speak up and push for an
immediate end to this matter as Julians life is at stake."
Could I first remind you that, by 9 June, Julian Assange, who
had broken no British Law, had been illegally locked away for 23
hours per day in solitary confinement in Belmarsh Prison for more
than four years?
Given that Assange stands, very soon, to be extradited to face a
fate, even worse than what he has already been made to endure at
Belmarsh - solitary confinement for the rest of his life in a
United States Maximum Security Prison - a fate he considers worse
than death - isn't it time, that, as convenor of the 48 member
Bring Home Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group (Assange
Support Group), you reflect upon your actions, or lack
thereof, for those last four years and question whether the Assange
Support Group could have been more effective?
An examination of Hansard shows me that the last time any
attempt was made in Parliament to properly hold the government to
account for its failure to act to support Assange, was on 2
December 2021 - more than 18 months ago - when you tried to
move for a suspension of Standing Orders so that you could put your
foreshadowed motion which called upon the then Morrison Government
to act to free Assange. Outrageously, that procedural motion was
declared lost. So, according to the Speaker, a majority of MPs, on
that day, voted against you putting to Parliament the case for the
government to act to free Australia's most famous and most revered
citizen - Julian Assange.
So, how many Australians do you think are aware that a majority
of MPs behaved so badly on that day? In my view, and, I
expect, the view of most Australians, any MP who voted on that day
to prevent debate on Assange on the floors of Parliament is not fit
to sit in that Parliament and should be made to resign. Yet,
because you failed to call for a division, we don't know the names
of those MPs.
Since that day, little else has been done in support of Assange
in our Parliament. Of the 48 members of the Assange Support
Group, Hansard shows me that only on two occasions was the
government ever questioned about Assange, by Janet Rice and Doctor
Monique Ryan. Only a handful of repres...