‘Welcome home, Julian Assange: don’t leak again’, warns Penny Wong

Penny Wong has said the government will not tolerate the leaking of top secret information like that published by Julian Assange, as the Coalition accused the PM of welcoming the convicted felon home like a ‘hero’.

Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, leaves after a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Penny Wong has said the government will not tolerate the leaking of top secret information like that published by Julian Assange, as the Coalition accused Anthony Albanese of welcoming the convicted felon back to Australia like a “homecoming hero”.

Opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham accused the Prime Minister of a “grave error of judgment” for phoning ­Assange after he landed in Canberra on Wednesday, and the WikiLeaks founder was neither hero nor journalist as claimed.

The political row came as ­Assange’s wife refused to rule out the prospect he could reprise his former role as a publisher of classified leaks. “Julian is the most principled man I know and he will always defend human rights and speak out against injustice, and he can choose how he does that because he is a free man,” Stella Assange said.

Ms Assange was joined at Parliament House on Thursday by her husband’s lawyers and a cross-party group of supporters who hailed the WikiLeaks founder as a free speech champion.

Assange was nowhere to be seen. He was believed to have left the capital for a beach house on the NSW south coast.

The Foreign Minister defended Mr Albanese’s decision to speak personally with Assange, who told the Prime Minister he had saved his life, but she said Mr Albanese’s welcome for Assange should not be interpreted as a signal the government tolerated the leaking of secret documents.

“We have laws in Australia in relation to national security information. We expect those laws to be observed by all citizens and by all entities. That is our position,” Senator Wong said.

“In relation to Mr Assange, we have taken the view that this matter had gone on for too long, and as the Prime Minister has said, nothing would be served by further incarceration of Mr ­Assange.”

Moments after Assange’s arrival, Mr Albanese said “We have got this done”, saying he was the first person to speak to the former hacker after his plane landed.

Senator Birmingham said Mr Albanese should not have called Assange, and the move could undermine Australia-US ties.

“It is completely unnecessary and totally inappropriate for Julian Assange to be greeted like some homecoming hero by the Australian Prime Minister,” he said. “Julian Assange yesterday pleaded guilty to charges under the Espionage Act for acts against Australia’s closest ally.

“How do you think that is interpreted to, on the same day, plead guilty to charges under the Espionage Act against the US and then receive a welcome home phone call from the Australian Prime Minister?”

Senator Birmingham said he backed the government’s consular support for Assange and the WikiLeaks founder’s return to Australia but Assange should not be “feted” like Australians, including Cheng Lei, Sean Turnell and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who had returned home after being wrongfully detained”.

Senator Birmingham said what Assange did was “not careful journalism … Instead, he simply published around half a million documents without having read them, curated them, checked to see if there was anything that could be damaging or risking the lives of others in there,” he said. “He simply dumped them on the internet. That is not journalism and shouldn’t be feted as such.”

His comments were in stark contrast to those of some of his Coalition colleagues, including Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who hailed Assange as an “Australian hero”, declaring “his brave reporting helped expose the ­tragic folly of the wars we started in recent years”.

Assange’s American lawyer, Barry Pollack, said his client’s publication of top secret files, including revelations of civilian casualties during the Iraq War, was “journalism at the highest level”.

Mr Pollack said he hoped the international campaign on ­Assange’s case would again gather momentum to push for his client to be pardoned.

By late Thursday, Assange’s supporters had raised more than $796,000 to cover the cost of his chartered flight from Britain to the Northern Marianas Islands, where he made his guilty plea to a US court, and on to Canberra.

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd, a key player in the effort to have Assange freed, said his plea deal with the US Justice Department was “plainly the way to go”.

Mr Rudd, who accompanied Assange on his flight home, said he was “relieved” his ordeal was over, crediting Mr Albanese for the outcome. “The truth is it doesn’t matter how good your diplomatic team is, you need prime ministerial authorisation, prime ministerial direction, and frankly, a clear prime ministerial mandate to engage the US system at a level of seniority that would make a difference. And that’s what made this possible,” he told the ABC.

The Greens used the return to demand more whistleblower protections, saying former army officer David McBride – who leaked classified documents on Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan – was in prison because “broken whistleblower laws failed him”.