 I'll stop by acknowledging we're all gathered together here on Gadigal land and pay our collective respects to elders past president emerging and we're gathering on international human rights day and obviously one of the core issues for human rights on this continent in this country I'd say probably the core issue for human rights is justice for First Nations people so as we we acknowledge its First Nations land let's commit to using this year starting today to advocate for treaty for truth for power and for self-determination for First Nations peoples because this land always was and always will be our original land we're also gathered today on international human rights day to call for the return of an Australian to these shores an Australian whose only crime was to tell the truth about US war crimes whose only crime was to shine a light on the brutality of war and do it using the US government's own documents and for that crime Julian Assange has been persecuted now for 12 long years and is currently in jail in the United Kingdom in a high security jail and let's remember what his crime was telling the truth that the United States has now asserted that if any anybody on the planet no matter where spills the secrets of the United States military spills the secrets of the United States government that they will come after you no matter where you are on the planet and seek your extradition and return for potentially a lifetime in jail in the United States that is an obscene injustice that is an obscene extension of any country's power and the fact that our government continues to see that as a legitimate act of an ally says a lot about our government just over there is the prime minister and I would expect the Australian prime minister to say a law of an ally that seeks to criminalize an Australian who wasn't in that country who wasn't bound by any contract or legal obligation of confidentiality to the United States and who simply published documents telling the truth about the United States that our prime minister would say no law of the United States is legitimate if it seeks to criminalize an Australian like that but instead we've seen the Australian government the prime minister the foreign affairs minister continue to say that what is happening to Julian is just standard lawful process well it is not and we should call it out and we should acknowledge that there is no legitimacy to the laws under which Julian is being prosecuted and in the last 24 hours I think many people around the world have celebrated the release of Brittany Greiner I know I was one of them being held unjustly in a foreign country and we saw her government step up loudly in the public domain we saw President Biden make loud public appeal and a clear statement that Brittany Greiner was being illegitimately jailed in Russia and should be brought home and the United States combined their public advocacy with private advocacy and can celebrate the return of Brittany Greiner well where's our government with Julian Assange we keep being told it's about quiet diplomacy well it's bloody dear silent diplomacy and this coded phrase like this should end what does that even mean does that mean it should end by Julian being extradited and jailed with a fixed term is that what the prime minister means I think that is what he means this should end and it should end with a clear statement from our government to our allies in the United Kingdom that they should return Julian Assange and it should end with a clear statement to the United States that they should stop the persecution and seek at a minimum a presidential pardon of Julian Assange and it should end with Julian Assange being brought home with powerful advocacy from our government using the power they have with those two allies and it should happen today but of course our government is also comfortable with hounding whistleblowers with persecuting whistleblowers and I think we should acknowledge that they are actually quite comfortable with a whistleblower being in jail because they're also willing to use the Australian government to persecute whistleblowers onshore and I want to acknowledge David McBride who's here in the crowd today a brave whistleblower and of course David McBride's crime is telling the truth about war crimes in Afghanistan and to date years after that information came into the public domain to date David McBride is the only person who's been criminally prosecuted because of war crimes in Afghanistan how cooked is a legal system and a government that sees such serious evidence of war crimes in Afghanistan and the only person they prosecute is the whistleblower and I'd say the same for Richard Boyle so I commend you all for coming out today and retaining the faith in basic human decency and the call for have Julian returned I'll be heading off to the United Kingdom just after Christmas and I'll be I'll be taking Julian a card signed by politicians from across political parties from the friends of Julian Assange and delivering him a message of hope just after Christmas but I'll also tell him about not just the MPs and Senators I'll tell him about the people who gathered here today and I'll tell him about the people who gathered in Canberra and I'll tell him about the millions of people around the world who want him freed because the people of the world deserve the truth Julian deserves his freedom and we deserve a far better bloody government than that blokes delivery