In caucus on Tuesday, Anthony Albanese likened the freeing of Julian Assange to that of political prisoners Cheng Lei and Sean Turnell, the release of whom his government also secured.

The release of Assange has closer parallels to that of David Hicks 17 years ago, who like Assange, was deemed to have broken American law while not in that country, and which eventually involved a US president cutting a favour for an Australian prime minister.