Political leaders, family share their thoughts after Julian Assange’s return to Australia

After Julian Assange’s return to Australia, leaders, experts, and his family have shared their thoughts.

Transcript

00:00It has been years, not months, and there has obviously been a lot of engagement and advocacy

00:08from the Prime Minister, myself and the Attorney-General, also a lot of work to bring about this result

00:17from Kevin Rudd, our Ambassador in Washington, and Stephen Smith, the UK High Commissioner.

00:23Julian Assange, as we've said, has a lot of support in Washington, and particularly in

00:26the Congress. There's bipartisan support there from the far right of the Freedom Caucus right

00:31across to the Progressive Caucus. And so I think there will be a push for a pardon, and

00:36certainly there's a strong appeal there to President Biden around press freedom.

00:41A rollercoaster of emotion for me. Overwhelming happiness, relief. I even shed a tear. I cried

00:50and, yeah, tears of joy, really, that Julian's back on home soil.

00:57The community placed pressure, advocated, made very clear to the Prime Minister and

01:03the Labor Party particularly, that their expectation was that Julian is returned home as an Australian

01:09citizen who has basically done his job as a journalist reporting war crimes. And that

01:15is something which, across the Parliament, momentum built, and we have seen the end of

01:20a saga that went on for far too long.