An image of Julian Assange is projected onto a building in London, to mark three years since his arrest and detention in Belmarsh Prison (Image: AAP/Victoria Jones)
An image of Julian Assange is projected onto a building in London, to mark three years since his arrest and detention in Belmarsh Prison (Image: AAP/Victoria Jones)

A government backbencher has called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be brought back to Australia, after a British court formally approved his extradition to the United States. 

Liberal MP Jason Falinski, a moderate facing an independent challenge in his Sydney Northern Beaches seat of Mackellar, told Crikey that while he respected the British court’s ruling, he hoped the Morrison government could negotiate for Assange to be returned to Australia.

“My hope would be instead of getting extradited he’d be sent back to Australia — the sooner the better,” Falinski said.

“For him and for his family, this is an awful situation to be in.”

Following a brief hearing yesterday, the Westminster Magistrates Court made an order approving Assange’s extradition, after his legal team was denied permission to appeal it by the UK Supreme Court last month. If extradited, Assange faces 17 espionage charges and one related to computer misuse. His legal team say he could face up to 175 years in prison.

Assange’s fate now lies in the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel. His legal team’s final remaining avenues are to make submissions to Patel, or appeal to the British High Court.

But independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who chairs the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home Group, said that while the decision was disappointing, one positive dimension was how the issue had become “intensely political” now that court processes were finished.

“No longer can British and Australian politicians hide behind the excuse that it’s a matter for the courts,” he told Crikey. 

“It’s entirely appropriate now for Scott Morrison to pick up the phone to Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, and, for that matter, Anthony Albanese, to say what he would do if he became PM in four weeks’ time.”

With a few notable exceptions, support from the government has been tepid. Facing questions on RN Breakfast this morning, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the Australian government wouldn’t challenge the ruling.

“There remain appeal rights for Mr Assange, depending on decisions that have [been] made and we’ll continue to provide, where it is taken up, appropriate consular assistance,” he said.

But Falinski is one of a growing number of government MPs who’ve publicly opposed Assange’s extradition. Last year Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce used an opinion piece in the Nine newspapers to call for Assange’s return to Australia.

“They [Britain] should try him there for any crime he is alleged to have committed on British soil or send him back to Australia, where he is a citizen,” Joyce said.

Tasmanian backbencher Bridget Archer, who holds the Coalition’s most marginal seat of Bass, also supports diplomatic action to bring Assange to Australia.

Assange’s parliamentary support also unites both ends of the political spectrum. His Parliamentary Friends group includes nine Greens, but is also co-chaired by hard-right former Coalition MP turned One Nation Senate candidate George Christensen.

Last month, Assange, who has been incarcerated at Belmarsh Prison since 2019, married his long-term partner Stella Morris. Wilkie said Assange’s long, very public ordeal has drawn more parliamentarians to the whistleblower’s cause.

“I’ve detected in the last year or two, a lot of people who were happy for him to rot in jail have changed their mind,” he said.