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Speaker 1: Julian Massage back in Australia and he's got a hero's welcome. Now.

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Speaker 1: I don't look at him as being a hero. The

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister yesterday saying he was pleased to speak with

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Speaker 1: Julian Massage. Welcome him home to his family in Australia.

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Speaker 1: As I said just before the break, he has done

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Speaker 1: his time Ecuadorian Embassy, Belmarsh prison. But that should be

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Speaker 1: the end of it. Julian Massange, welcome back. Fine, get

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Speaker 1: on with your life and that's the end. Simon Birmingham,

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Speaker 1: Senator for South Australia on the line, and Simon Birmingham

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Speaker 1: tweeted out the call to Julian Massage neither necessary nor appropriate. Senator,

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Speaker 1: good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, that's you. Good to be with you.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think that.

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Speaker 2: Julian Massange yesterday pleaded guilty to charge related to espionage

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Speaker 2: in a United States court. That was yesterday morning. Last

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Speaker 2: night he landed back in Australia and received a welcome

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Speaker 2: home phone call from our Prime Minister. It's completely in

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Speaker 2: aropriate for Anthony Alberanzi to think that he should be

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Speaker 2: offering some welcome homecoming to Julian Assang. On the very

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Speaker 2: same day that he's finally fronted up to justice and

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Speaker 2: pleaded guilty to having engaged in a legal act with

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Speaker 2: our closest ally of the United States.

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Speaker 1: We have had Australians detained overseas in other countries illegally

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Speaker 1: in the view of many, and Kylie more Gilbert I

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Speaker 1: spoke with her a couple of years back with the

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Speaker 1: publication of her story in Iran, and that was just

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Speaker 1: a terribly wrong injustice. Well, what are the worst injustices

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Speaker 1: ever to imprison this young woman for no good cause,

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Speaker 1: just as a prisoner exchange essentially is what it was

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Speaker 1: all about. Ultimately when she was freed and you think, well, Assage, mate,

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Speaker 1: you're not in that category.

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Speaker 2: Well, he's definitely not. And if I look at what

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Speaker 2: Anthony Alberanees has got wrong on this, it's sending the

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Speaker 2: wrong signal to the United States in relation to somehow

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Speaker 2: giving a tacid seal of approval or acknowledgment or welcome

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Speaker 2: to Assange despite his criminal conviction in the US. But

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Speaker 2: it's also putting him on a plane alongside people like

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Speaker 2: Kylie Moore Gilbert, or Chung Lay or Professor Shawn Turnell

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Speaker 2: who were three Australians who were wrongfully detained, arbitrarily detained

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Speaker 2: by regime me and mar In Iran in China on

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Speaker 2: charges that as a country, we don't accept and held

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Speaker 2: in ways and prosecuted and detained through legal systems that

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Speaker 2: don't offer any of the same type of transparency that

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Speaker 2: our legal system offers, or or that the legal systems

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Speaker 2: of the United States or the United Kingdom or Sweden offer.

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Speaker 2: And Julian Assange spent years trying to avoid the US

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Speaker 2: legal system. He's of course spent seven years famously hiding

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Speaker 2: in the Ecuadorian embassy trying to avoid the Swedish legal

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Speaker 2: system when he was being facing charges in allegations of

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Speaker 2: sexual assault in that system. These are not despotic countries,

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Speaker 2: the UK, of the US and Sweden. These are our

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Speaker 2: democratic friends and allies and partners, and we certainly shouldn't

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Speaker 2: be treating somebody who has gone through their justice systems

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Speaker 2: anything like the type of political prisoners essentially that Kylie Moore, Gilbert,

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Speaker 2: Shawn Turnell and chung Ley were.

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Speaker 1: Do you think Assange would have got a fair trial

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Speaker 1: though in those countries that you mentioned, certainly, I mean

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Speaker 1: more Gilbert faced trial in Iran, and you'd certainly argue

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Speaker 1: she didn't get a fair go there, and that's understandable

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Speaker 1: given the nature of the system and what they were

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Speaker 1: trying to do. But regardless do you think of Sannge

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Speaker 1: would have got a fair trial.

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Speaker 2: I think there's no reason for us to believe that

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Speaker 2: in Sweden or in the US he wouldn't have that.

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Speaker 2: In the UK, the evidence is there. He used the

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Speaker 2: UK justice system for five years through various appeal processes,

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Speaker 2: which under that system he was entirely entitled to do.

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Speaker 2: And of course he also was entirely entitled to Australian

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Speaker 2: consular assistance, just like any other Australian overseas. My complaints

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Speaker 2: aren't in relation to the consualists apport he received, or

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Speaker 2: the work of Department of Foreign Affairs officials to ensure

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Speaker 2: that he's welfare was treated and considered, or that he

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Speaker 2: had access to legal counsel. All of those things, of

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Speaker 2: course should have happened and were appropriate to occur. My

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Speaker 2: criticism is that Prime Minister Anthemy Albanizi shouldn't be getting

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Speaker 2: into a position where he is giving any sort of

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Speaker 2: cascit acceptance of what Julian Estange did, nor putting him

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Speaker 2: on any time of equal footing with those who didn't

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Speaker 2: have access to fair and proper legal systems, and who

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Speaker 2: were genuinely political prisoners, and who in different ways, and

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Speaker 2: particularly if I take Sean Turnell, he is a hero.

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Speaker 2: He was working for the Burmese people in Me and Mars,

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Speaker 2: helping Long DUNSUCHI to revolutionize their economy and to try

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Speaker 2: to actually create a positive life and future for those people,

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Speaker 2: only to be locked up in jail when the military

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Speaker 2: took over. He is the best of Australian and Julian

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Speaker 2: Assange is nowhere close to that.

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Speaker 1: Should Assange get a book deal, a TV deal, should

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Speaker 1: that happen.

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Speaker 2: Well, we live in a country and the world where

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Speaker 2: I'm sure he probably will. I won't be buying it.

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Speaker 2: I won't be doing anything that puts money into his pocket,

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Speaker 2: and I discourage others from doing so as well. As

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Speaker 2: I saw his wife call for respect for their privacy

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Speaker 2: at the press conference hild in Canberra last night. As

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Speaker 2: one of my colleagues quipped to me this morning, it

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Speaker 2: looked and sounded a little bit like Megan.

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Speaker 1: Markle, Please take all the time you need, Juliana sange

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Speaker 1: to have that piece inquired, all right, Senator Simon Birmingham,

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Speaker 1: thank you for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, my pleasure.