Antinuclear

Australians support Wikileaks, disagree with Prime Minister

“the most significant finding from the polling is the almost complete lack of support for prosecuting Mr Assange … The public is overwhelmingly against this.”

Strong support for WikiLeaks among Australians, The Age, Tim Lester, January 6, 2011 AUSTRALIAN voters are sharply at odds with Prime Minister Julia Gillard over the release of classified US government cables, a poll shows. The survey suggests just one-quarter of Australian voters support Ms Gillard’s view that the recent WikiLeaks diplomatic cables should have remained secret…..

UMR managing director John Utting said support for the release of the cables was strongest among men, the more affluent and younger voters, and the better educated.

“Also there is little difference between the two major parties, while Green voters overwhelmingly support the release,” Mr Utting said.

On December 2, Ms Gillard said: ”I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the WikiLeaks website – it’s a grossly irresponsible thing to do and an illegal thing to do.”

Ms Gillard was later forced to qualify her comments when federal police advised the government that WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange had committed no crime under Australian law…..

The UMR poll also found 51 per cent of Australian voters have a generally positive opinion of Julian Assange, while 24 per cent hold negative views towards the WikiLeaks leader……support for Julian Assange is clear: 63 per cent of voters oppose any prosecution for releasing the documents, with just 19 per cent believing he should be prosecuted.

According to Mr Utting, “the most significant finding from the polling is the almost complete lack of support for prosecuting Mr Assange … The public is overwhelmingly against this.”

Strong support for WikiLeaks among Australians

January 6, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics