Let Julian Assange ‘return home to Australia’, MPs urge

The motion formally urging the UK and USA to allow the WikiLeaks founder to come home passed 86 votes in favour and 42 against.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese and cabinet members have voted to formally urge the UK and US to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to “return home to his family in Australia”.

In federal parliament on Wednesday, the motion by independent MP Andrew Wilkie was passed 86 votes in favour and 42 against. Mr Wilkie described this as “an unprecedented show of political support for Mr Assange by the Australian parliament”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was among Coalition MPs who opposed the motion. Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to vote with Mr Wilkie and the Prime Minister.

Anthony Albanese has voted for Julian Assange’s return. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The 52-year-old from Townsville is in the UK facing the possibility of extradition to the US, where Amnesty International this week reiterated its concerns that he faces the risk of serious human rights violations if extradited and warned of “a profound ‘chilling effect’ on global media freedom”.

Mr Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 as a means of publishing sensitive documents in bulk. In 2010 WikiLeaks posted almost half a million documents obtained from low-ranking US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for her role. President Barack Obama later her sentence and she was released after seven years.

Meanwhile, Mr Assange has been in legal limbo at various locations including the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he arrived dressed as a courier in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape allegation that he denied. He stayed for seven years. While there he lived in an office converted into a bedroom, fathered two children and received regular visitors including Pamela Anderson. The Baywatch actress wrote in her 2023 autobiography Love, Pamela that she met him through fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and found him a hero, sexy and funny. She wrote that after one “slightly frisky, fun, alcohol-induced night together” they had joked about getting married on the steps of the embassy to prevent his arrest.

Pamela Anderson visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he stayed for seven years. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Assange has been held in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019 as the US government’s extradition efforts continue.

Sweden dropped the rape allegation against Mr Assange in 2019.

However, US prosecutors accuse him of conspiring to hack into its military databases. He has said the information published on WikiLeaks exposed abuses by the US military and that the case against him is politically motivated.

US prosecutors say the leaks put lives at risk.