Government right to avoid megaphone diplomacy on Assange, Joe Hockey says

Australia’s former United States ambassador Joe Hockey says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is wise not to engage in “megaphone diplomacy” in a bid to persuade the Biden administration to drop espionage charges against Julian Assange.

The federal government’s behind-the-scenes efforts to secure the WikiLeaks founder’s freedom have divided the Coalition, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton arguing Australia should let the US legal process play out without trying to influence the outcome.

Former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey says the government is wise not to pursue “megaphone diplomacy” in the Julian Assange case.Credit: Evelyn Hockstein

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce disagreed, saying that allowing Assange to be extradited to the US would set a dangerous precedent.

Hockey, who served as Australia’s US ambassador from 2016 to 2020, said Australians should not underestimate how sensitive the Assange issue is with both Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

“Megaphone diplomacy doesn’t work well at all with the US,” Hockey said.

Asked about the government’s strategy of lobbying the Biden administration privately to secure an outcome, he said: “This judgment is right.”

Herve Lemahieu, an expert in diplomacy at the Lowy Institute think tank, agreed, saying: “Once you pick up the megaphone it could backfire and have the unintended consequence of hardening the existing positions of the US or UK.

“The government will have to exert all options in terms of backroom diplomacy before it escalates the requests in the public sphere ... This is definitely a sensitive issue.”

The British government has ordered Assange be extradited to the US to face charges relating to the theft and publication of secret diplomatic cables a decade ago.

If convicted, Assange could face decades in jail.

Dutton said on Tuesday the government should provide regular consular assistance to Assange but not otherwise seek to intervene in his case.

“I think people should conduct themselves according to the law and I think they should be answerable to their conduct according to the law,” he told 2GB.

“We’re not talking about a country where they don’t have a developed legal system.”

Dutton said that in a similar situation, Australia would expect to let its own legal system operate “without international interference”.

“I think Mr Assange has protracted this particular issue for years and years and years through his own conduct,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the US legal process should play itself out without interference from Australia.Credit: AAP

Joyce said he believed Assange was a “total ratbag” but he should not be extradited to the US because he was not in the country when he was accused of breaching the Espionage Act.

“I am talking about this on the premise of principle,” he said. “That is, if we believe that it is right to stand back and let an Australian citizen be extradited to a third country of which they are neither citizen nor were they there when an offence was committed, where are we going to draw the line?”

Joyce, who first spoke out against extraditing Assange last year, urged the government to be more transparent about what it wanted from the Biden administration.

“You’ve told us you’re talking behind the scenes. So you might as well tell us what you’re talking about,” he said.

Walkleys Foundation chair Adele Ferguson, an investigative journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, said Assange had been languishing for years and it was time for him to be brought home.

“Press freedom and human rights are vital to our society and what is happening sets a very dangerous precedent at a time when press freedom in this country is being chipped away,” she said. “This is the time for the government to stand up for press freedom.”

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