Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce is the only government member to have signed a letter to US Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for Australian terrorist suspect David Hicks to be sent home.
Ninety-six MPs - the Australian Democrats, the Australian Greens, independents Peter Andren and Tony Windsor and most Labor members - put their name to the letter, which was faxed on Thursday to Ms Pelosi, a member of the US Democratic Party.
Mark Bishop, Robert Ray and Michael Danby were the only Labor politicians not to sign.
Co-authored by Democrats leader Lyn Allison and Labor's legal spokesman Kelvin Thomson, the letter asks that the US Congress take steps to have Hicks returned home.
Senator Allison said it was disappointing more coalition members didn't come on board.
"But we do know that there are many government members deeply worried about this situation so I'm consoled that many of them have gone public on this issue," she told reporters.
"I think it would have been more powerful had they been signatories to our letter but I think 96 parliamentarians is a very strong message indeed."
One government minister, while he did not sign the letter, spoke out strongly on Friday over the time Hicks has spent waiting to face trial at Guantanamo Bay.
The 31-year-old has been held at the US military prison in Cuba for five years since being taken prisoner in Afghanistan.
"He's spent five years now in detention in Guantanamo Bay and that is a very long time indeed," Justice Minister Chris Ellison said in Darwin on Friday.
"It's inappropriate that he's been held for such a long time without having his trial concluded.
Senator Ellison said Australia was doing all it could to ensure the Adelaide-born father of two was charged and dealt with as quickly as possible.
"We've made it very clear that we expect David Hicks to be charged as soon possible and for the law to take its course," Senator Ellison told reporters.
"It is incumbent on the United States to resolve this matter and have David Hicks dealt with."
But Labor's Mr Thomson said the federal government should shoulder its share of the blame.
"If minister Ellison wants to describe anything as totally inappropriate it should be this government's approach to David Hicks - which has been nothing short of disgraceful," he said in a statement.
The politicians who signed the letter say they are unconvinced Hicks will get a fair trial.
"We are not satisfied that the recently announced rules for Guantanamo Bay detainee trials will afford David Hicks (or other detainees) a fair hearing, consistent with international legal standards and Australian law," the letter says.
Although he was alone among his colleagues, Senator Joyce said he had no hesitation in signing the letter.
"The time is now for US Congress to act and get the ball rolling and let this man come home for a trial here in Australia," he said.
"Five years is far too long to be incarcerated without any charges being laid."
Senator Allison is hopeful Australians will make their concerns about Hicks known when US Vice President Dick Cheney visits Australia from February 22.
Hicks pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy at a US military commission hearing in August 2004.
The charges were dropped when the US Supreme Court ruled last year that the commissions designed to prosecute Hicks and other Guantanamo detainees were unlawful.
But Hicks is now expected to be one of the first inmates to be tried under a new revised system.
Hicks' military appointed lawyer Major Michael Mori has indicated his client will again plead not guilty if similar charges are brought against him.