Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s fake support for Julian Assange is identical to Albanese’s fake support for the open and transparent government which he came to power in May 2022 declaring would be part of his Prime Ministership.
Albanese isn’t the only one and his fake support is backed up by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus with some Assange supporters directing their focus at them. But Albanese is the main man and all correspondence and petitions should be directed at him and his office because he is the weakest link given he has by far the highest profile in the government.
If you want to know if the Albanese government is open and transparent you don’t have to look any further than how they are treating Julian Assange as he is the canary in the coal mine for all Australians who want an open and transparent government.
Just like other issues Albanese is playing the public for fools by pretending he supports the dropping of charges and release of Julian Assange which I will deal with in a minute. But firstly, lets looks at some of Albanese’s lies when it comes to running an open and transparent government.
Below is a list of 3 key issues that show the Anthony Albanese government is not much better than the Scott Morrison government when it comes to openness and transparency.
- The Albanese government is continuing with it charges against whistleblowers David McBride who exposed war crimes and Richard Boyle who exposed corruption at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
- The Albanese government is abusing FOI laws just as much as the Scott Morrison government and that is set to be exposed in detail in a Senate Inquiry that the Albanese government voted against holding. (Click here to read more)
- While campaigning for the May 2022 federal election Anthony Albanese promised public hearings for the new National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). But after being elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did a dirty deal with opposition leader Peter Dutton so the NACC will only have public hearings in exceptional circumstances. (Click here to read more)
Add the above three issues to Albanese’s fake support for Julian Assange and a powerful prima facia case has been built that Anthony Albanese’s claim he would run an open and transparent government was a big lie. In hindsight, that fact should have been obvious to all before they election based on, their weak at best, support for Julian Assange before the 2022 federal election.
Julian Assange and the lies of Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and Mark Dreyfus
As per the below video in November 2022 Independent MP Monique Ryan asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese what he was doing to help Julian Assange. PM Albanese gave an answer in support of Julian Assange saying, “enough is enough” and “it is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion” and he claimed he had “raised this personally with representatives of the United States government” but the reality is all evidence points to him doing nothing.
The problem for the government’s claim they are trying to help Julian Assange is what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in the above video is contradicted by what Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has said and her actions.
On Thursday (30/3/23) Penny Wong told the Senate ““We are doing what we can, between government and government, but there are limits to what that diplomacy can achieve,” which gives the impression the Government can achieve little. (Click here to read more) If that is the case why didn’t Albanese tell the Parliament in November and did he mislead the parliament?
The website Pearls and Irritations published an article on the 4th of April pointing out that Penny Wong has been very vocal on Twitter “about Australian-Chinese journalist Cheng Lei, jailed in China, but silent on Australian journalist Julian Assange, jailed in the UK.” Why?
Under the previous Liberal government, China-bashing became a popular pastime, while Julian Assange was treated as a pariah, in keeping with the attitude of the US national security establishment.
On both issues, Labor has sounded mixed signals, but fundamentally maintained the Liberals’ pro-US (and UK) positions. (Click here to read more)
Actions speak louder than words and social media accounts have exposed many politicians for their lies and this time it is Penny Wong and her Twitter account.
On the 23rd of January 2023 Independent MP Monique Ryan issued a press release titled “Past time for the Government to act on Julian Assange” which said in part:
Dr Monique Ryan MP is calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to disclose what they have done, and will do, to secure the release of Australian journalist Julian Assange and the cessation of the United States Government’s espionage prosecution against him.
The US Government’s prosecution of Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange poses a major threat to press freedom around the world. Unfortunately, the evidence now available shows that, contrary to their statements, Prime Minister Albanese and his Ministers have done little to secure Mr Assange’s freedom. None of them has written to their US counterparts to press for the espionage prosecution to be dropped.
and:
“While the Prime Minister may have raised Mr Assange’s case verbally with unnamed United States representatives, new Freedom of Information decisions reveal that neither the Prime Minister, nor the Foreign Minister, nor Attorney-General has written to their US counterparts in relation to Mr Assange.”
“Asked to provide access to ‘all correspondence or other record of communication’ concerning Mr Assange sent to US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken or Attorney-General Merrick Garland, the offices of the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Attorney-General have advised that such documents ‘do not exist’.” (Click here to read the full press release)
Australia’s new High Commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, reportedly met with Julian Assange on Tuesday (5/4/23) but some were already suggesting before the meeting it was just a public relations exercise for the government. Federal Senator David Shoebridge tweeted:
“The High Commissioner is the first Australian official to visit Julian Assange in the 4 years he has been in Belmarsh prison – he is going basically as a welfare check and only after a global campaign that has shamed the Australian government for its inaction.”
The stark difference between the lack of advocacy for Assange, who is being persecuted by two of our closest allies, and Aust’s appropriately forceful representations for Australian Cheng Lei & American Evan Gershkovich facing political charges in China & Russia, is so glaring
It’s seems that for the Albanese government this isn’t about justice or common decency it’s all about politics and bowing and scraping to powerful friends while chest thumping to geo-political opponents. It’s more than sad. (Click here to read more)
One positive about Stephen Smith visiting Julian Assange is that the Australian government will no longer be able to play the dummy game because there is no way in the world Assange should be in a high security jail like Belmarsh Prison. In Australia it would be illegal for a low security prisoner like Assange to be held in a high security jail for more than a few weeks.
Please use Twitter, Facebook, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing so please click on the Patreon button below and support independent journalism.
If you would like to support via PayPal use the button below or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.
Thank you for your support.
For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.
Categories: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, WikiLeaks
Should anyone be surprised about the contents of this ongoing story, is there much real difference between the previous and current Government’s of Australia, apathy runs through the Australian population combined with old media in bed with some our elected officials, McCarthyism is alive, the federal corruption commission that operates in secret, prosecution of legitimate whistleblowers and the show continues unabated….in stark contrast to the French population who simply don’t just roll over..
I totally agree with you, there is not much difference between the Labor and LIBERAL governments. They are both puppets for the US.
WE HAVE NO INDEPENDENT POLICY.
If David McBride or Richard Boyle go to prison, I doubt that there will be protests. We’re weak as piss. Having said that, Dreyfus actually went on morning TV to urge whistleblowers to come forward. It is a trap, pure and simple.
‘Weak as..’ Too True
Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
All of them from the biggest disappointment ever, Albanese and the truly despicable Morrison to every other minion below them are all so terrified that if Julian Assange is released, he will bring the lot of them down. Their crimes, bribes, blackmail and pure greed will be exposed for all the world to see. None of these people are elected in the true sense, and if they were, they are very quickly brought into line or they will be discarded long before they get a public voice (ministry). Australia is a part of Five Eyes …. and that says it all!
Reports are saying the NACC will be set up by the end of the year, 18 months after the election. If NACC proceeds (in private) at the usual snail`s pace of any legal investigations, we might actually see someone brought to book before they reach senility. With so many rorters to chase, who will be first cab off the rank? Just as well we don`t have Presidential pardons in this country, otherwise I could see a lot of political mates dodging the bullet.
Totally disappointed with this Labor Government to date. Had high hopes with promise of transparency and protection for whistleblowers but it seems they are no different to the pathetic LNP. Who can hold them to account though? People like KCA obviously but we need someone with real teeth to take it up to them….and I don’t know how that can happen….not in our Parliament that’s for sure! Albo’s halo is starting to slip…let’s hope it doesn’t strangle him!
Politicians follow independent media and social media so the more people who share this article the more bite it has.
… the whole thing is steeped in politics & this is yet one more illustration of it and so, one after another, going back to the Gillard days the standard Australian line is … we must not interfere in the UK judicial system … a line employed to stiff arm the need to act … a line that is uttered in the hope that not enough people hearing it appreciate that the UK judicial system itself, has allowed itself to be politicised, politicised in this instance to the same extent as Nazi Germany’s bar succumbed to being a toady of the executive …
Say what you think the public will swallow prior to an election, do what you like after the election and stuff the public, until the next election when the wheel turns again. What a farce politics are with clowns running the circus.
Only 13 Labor MPs have been willing to sign MP Andrew Wilkies letter to end Julian Assange’s extradition to the US. They are Michelle Ananda-Rajah, Mike Freelander, Julian Hill, Peter Khalil, Tania Lawrence, Zaneta Mascarenhas, Brian Mitchell, Alicia Payne, Graham Perrett, Susan Templeman, Maria Vamvakinou, Josh Wilson and Tony Zappia.
And only 48 out of all our parliamentarians.