Antinuclear

Julian Assange brings fresh vision into Australia’s threatened democracy

That Assange’s Wikileaks movement is growing a political arm in
Australia is a logical step.  There is no party in this country which
unambiguously believes that we need to roll back the surveillance
state.  Greens Senator Scott Ludlam from Western Australia has been a
champion of this issue but he is too often a lone voice in the Senate.

The Wikileaks Party and Julian Assange are filling a gap in the
political ideas marketplace in Australia.  Its fresh approach to
policy making and to democratic values is compelling.

Running the Assange Senate campaign like racing into cold surf on hot
day https://australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/running-the-assange-senate-campaign-like-racing-into-cold-surf-on-hot-day/
Greg Barns April 5, 2013

Julian Assange has been treated appallingly by the Gillard government,
and the Tony Abbott led Opposition for that matter.  But Mr Assange’ s
Wikileaks and its underpinning philosophies of both blowing open the
world of secrecy that permeates bureaucracies and the political
masters they serve – and reducing the footprint of the state in the
lives of individuals in a democracy – are highly attractive.

These are the two reasons why I decided, having not been involved
actively in politics since the Liberal Party threw me aside in 2002 on
the basis that my attacks on its asylum seeker policies were high
treason, to join Mr Assange and the fledging Wikileaks Party’s federal
election campaign.  In a bleak political landscape (has it ever been
as debased as it is today?) Mr Assange’s political movement is a
tonic.  It’s the political equivalent of racing into the cold surf on
a 40 degree day.

Make no mistake, as the veteran Michelle Grattan wrote this week,
Assange is in the mix to win a Senate seat in Victoria.  And the Party
can win seats in other states with the right candidates.  These are
big calls to make and they are made with the usual caveat that a week
is a long time in politics, but there is in the Australian community
strong support for Assange and Wikileaks.

Many Australians think Julian Assange has been dealt a raw deal by the
Gillard government.  It has been prepared to watch one of its own
citizens hunted down by the US in the knowledge that if Julian Assange
ends up in the United States he will be tortured.  Not one skerrick of
political and diplomatic capital has been expended by Ms Gillard and
the officials in DFAT to try and work out a political solution which
would allow Assange to return to Australia after answering questions a
Swedish prosecutor wants to put to him concerning relationships he had
with a couple of women in that country.

That Assange’s Wikileaks movement is growing a political arm in
Australia is a logical step.  There is no party in this country which
unambiguously believes that we need to roll back the surveillance
state.  Greens Senator Scott Ludlam from Western Australia has been a
champion of this issue but he is too often a lone voice in the Senate.
Since 9/11 particularly both the Coalition and the ALP driven by the
fear mongers in ASIO, ASIS, the Federal Police and the
Attorney-General’s Department, has passed reams of laws and
regulations designed to diminish individual liberty.  In the shameful
absence of a Human Rights Act there has been no check or balance on
laws which enable citizens to be surveilled and have their movements
controlled or their data raided.

The other aspect of WikiLeaks and Assange’s views that appeals to me
is that it’s the enemy of cosy deals between government and business.
And it rightly argues that a government that acts in secret is an
undemocratic one.  The modus operandi of Australian governments from
time immemorial has been to indulge in both with little or no real
scrutiny.

There is in the Wikileaks Party a strand of liberalism which has long
been attractive to me.  That is, that democracy works best when there
is open government, transparency and a genuine commitment in word and
deed to primacy of the individual.

The Wikileaks Party and Julian Assange are filling a gap in the
political ideas marketplace in Australia.  Its fresh approach to
policy making and to democratic values is compelling.

It has reinvigorated my interest in Australian democracy.

April 6, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics