Appearing before Judge Ramona Manglona in the district courtroom of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, in his last few hours prior to freedom, Julian Assange exlained that his action of releasing the classified documents that had been shared with him by (then) Bradley Manning was protected by the first amendment of the US constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression, and that he believed the Espionage Act, under which he was being charged, was in conflict with that amendment. To paraphrase: “I broke the law; the law is wrong.”
Whilst most Australians are delighted Julian Assange is now home and free, the most important, and I think overlooked issue of this event is that we have at last an Australian Prime minister who has the determination to see Australia is not bullied by the US. Every one of our Prime ministers since Malcolm Fraser, -Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbot, Turnbull and Morrison have acted disgracefully ignoring Australia's interest and acting as "poodles" for whoever occupied the Whithouse. Australia does not deserve to go down with the decadent European/Anglo/US colonial powers, we are better than that! With Albanese as Prime minister do we have another John Curtain who is awake to the European bullshit and carefully extradites us from the decadence of the US and her Allies?
Whilst most Australians are delighted Julian Assange is now home and free, the most important, and I think overlooked issue of this event is that we have at last an Australian Prime minister who has the determination to see Australia is not bullied by the US. Every one of our Prime ministers since Malcolm Fraser, -Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbot, Turnbull and Morrison have acted disgracefully ignoring Australia's interest and acting as "poodles" for whoever occupied the Whithouse. Australia does not deserve to go down with the decadent European/Anglo/US colonial powers, we are better than that! With Albanese as Prime minister do we have another John Curtain who is awake to the European bullshit and carefully extradites us from the decadence of the US and her Allies?
Great comment; thank you, Peter