Stoic John’s sorrow could soon turn to joy as Albanese tells Biden - ‘Free Assange’.

Australia’s role in China containment strategy leverage to drop Assange hunt.

There’s a toll John Shipton has taken no parent should have to endure.  

It’s a 14-year emotional battle Shipton’s had to deal with because of the persecution of his son for alleged crimes that are not only unproven, but have failed to be proved, and yet, Shipton remains stoic.

His son of course is Julian Assange – the man the US has hunted and accused of being a spy for doing his job as a journalist.  

Shipton’s brave stoicism in the face of Assange’s adversity isn’t contrived - he’s paid a heavy price emotionally as he mourns his son’s incarceration and declining mental and physical health.

According to Shipton, Assange has been extraordinary with what he’s endured. “He’s been amazing, and I remain positive as Julian’s in a little cell and I need to keep my eye on the ball with what’s happening to him.”

While Assange’s mental health remains fragile, “it fluctuates,” Shipton says,”with the intensity of whatever’s happening.”

“When our activity looks like it's going places his mood elevates and participates in whatever we're doing.”

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a war based on a lie. War crimes were committed, and WikiLeaks' exposed to the world it had been duped about US action in Iraq and Afghanistan just as Daniel Ellsberg, in 1971, leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times revealing secret information, about the Vietnam War.

It was Assange’s access to a US military video, which he called "Collateral Murder", that showed a 2007 attack by US Apache helicopters in Baghdad killing a dozen people, including two journalists.

The video clearly depicted murder.

US accusations of espionage and other crimes never committed, turned Assange into an international fugitive.  

When his seven-year refuge in Ecuador’s Embassy in the UK came to an end and he was expelled into the waiting arms of UK authorities, Belmarsh prison became his new home.  

The battle to free Assange from prison and stop the US extraditing him, has been a dire battle for his legal team, of which prominent Australian legal mind, Greg Barns SC, acts as an Adviser to the Australian Assange Campaign.

Barns’s tireless efforts have worked and his lobbying of the Albanese Government to bring Assange home has almost certainly thwarted the US from ever getting their man and ending a saga that should never have been.

Assange isn’t only a victim of an overly aggressive US and the hand of American hegemony, but the victim of six appalling Australian governments, from Rudd to Morrison who put US interests ahead of protecting an innocent Australian.

Shipton says, previous Australian Governments were complicit in the US’s actions. “They’ve pandered to whatever they asked for.”

“They chose to acquiesce with whatever happened to Julian, and the UK isn’t a proxy, it’s an equal partner.”

Simply, Assange was abandoned by successive Australian Governments.

Fighting to free and repatriate an innocent Australian and engage the Americans on the issue wasn’t Australia’s priority – it sent a message that the foreign interests of the US were more important than protecting Australian citizens abroad.  

The Government has shown its approach to foreign affairs matters and how it manages diplomatic relations vastly different to previous Australian Government’s.

Australia under Albanese is no longer a country seemingly prepared to be treated as a diplomatic minion or doormat.

It’s a welcome approach to attitudes long overdue which Shipton and Barns are grateful for – claiming Albanese and Wong have shown significant leadership.

The 2022 May Federal election was as much about freeing Assange as it was about redefining and repositioning Australia globally.

“It was an election,” Shipton says, “where Independents, Greens, and many politicians stood on an Assange platform. Eighty-eight percent of Australians wanted Julian returned home to Australia.”

“Albanese has shown leadership as well as improving and strengthening our diplomatic relationships with the world. The way he acts in defence of its citizens, sees the coherence of Australian society reflected in how it responds to difficulties or false reports by foreign actors. This is a great improvement.”

Condemning the attitude of previous Australian Governments, Shipton’s criticism is toward their refusal to address the matter and protect not only an Australian citizen abroad but an innocent one.

“Most Australian Government's,” Shipton says, “Move into the prestige of office and announce what the institution is doing.”

“In the case of Anthony Albanese that hasn't occurred. They’ve put in serious work and committed the government to bringing Julian home.”

But will Assange ever return to Australia?

According to Shipton, ABC Australia’s global affairs editor, John Lyons, who’s been closely reporting on Assange, believes he’ll be freed unconditionally and back on Australian shores within two months.

It’s a hopeful call, but Lyons is a journalist of telling reputation, and as Shipton rightfully identifies, Lyons’s call places weight on the ABC, his own reputation and an expectation on Albanese, Wong, and the government.

Australian-US ties have been strong for 100 years, and Albanese and Wong are cognoscente of how important Australia is to the US’s strategic interests, nor are the Americans oblivious to the vital role Australia plays in its China containment strategy.

Australia’s ongoing co-operation in the South China Sea, could seemingly be the leverage used to get the Americans to drop their pursuit of Assange and allow Australia to bring him back home.

“There's now extreme urgency about the Assange matter,” Barns says. “The government has been resolute and Albanese, in an answer to a question in Parliament, last year, said he wanted to see an end of the matter.”

“The PM is shrewd enough to understand he has leverage with the Biden administration and used wisely, can bring about a very good result for Julian and his family.”

While Barns remains cautious about Assange’s pending freedom, he also knows the Government’s refusal not to contradict Lyons belief means something could be afoot in the first two months of this year, has significant merit to it. “It’s now a matter of wait and see.”

As Shipton’s emotional battle continues, he senses genuine hope of Assange being freed and back home in Melbourne.

“Julian’s treatment has been a global scandal. Five heads of State of the South America’s, two of them extremely powerful men, Lula of Brazil and Mexican President, Andreas Manual Lopez Obrador have said it's a matter of state policy to ensure Julian's freedom.

“Surely, the US has enough on its hands without Presidents of neighbouring countries speaking out for his release and freedom.”

Australians want Assange returned home, and polling last year showed overwhelming support for his repatriation.

According to Barns, Assange is a person who's done the world a great service, let alone Australia.

“He’s exposed war crimes committed by the US and its allies in theatres of war. I haven’t detected any hostility toward Julian, and those who were sceptical previously, now say enough is enough.”

Shipton’s long wait for Julian’s release appears to be ending and if Lyons is right, and is repatriated, then a hero’s welcome could await him, and Albanese and Wong would have also earned themselves hero status.