 Hi everybody. This is not a bad turnout for Wednesday morning on Not a Great Deal of Notice. Thank you so much for being here. My name is Scott Ludlam. I've known Julian for about 12-13 years now and we're going to have a little bit of a chat about Julian and surely I'm going to introduce you to the absolute superstars that we've got lined up as this campaign, hopefully draws to the conclusion that we have been desperately hoping for and working for for more than a decade. We are here this morning on beautiful Gadigal country, unceded land, land taken by force from its traditional owners that this sovereignty over this country was never ceded and we're here on a day and on behalf of somebody who hasn't seen this sunlight in more than four years. Here on behalf of an Australian who can't be with us this morning, someone who hasn't seen the sun in more than four years, the entire time I've known Julian Assange, he's been under some form of incarceration, house arrest, ankle bracelets, safe houses, an embassy without light and then four years in a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom in Belmarsh. For the whole time, think of everything that you have done since 2011. All the trips you've taken, trips to the beach, time with family, work, play, just life. Since 2011, he's been under some form of incarceration for telling the truth. I want to thank the organisers for bringing us together this morning and they dubbed the rally journalism is not a crime. Gunning down journalists with helicopter gunships, that's a crime. Torturing people is a crime. Rendering people to black sites and disappearing them without any form of judicial process is a crime. Drone assassinations are a crime. Publishing is not a crime. If you've been involved in this one for any length of time, you'll know that there's a shift. Our no hope is dangerous with this much at stake and for how long we've been at this, but there's a shift. Can you feel it? Things are moving and the reason that they're moving is not by accident, it's not by some arbitrary law of nature. It's because of the work that we have done and people like us have done in every time zone on this planet to get our friend Julian Assange free and along the way to show a wounded belligerent superpower that some principles matter. The truth is important. That publishers and journalists have a vital role to play in any society. And so that shift has come about because of the organising that's been done over more than a decade, including not least by some of the incredible people that we're going to be hearing from shortly. But I just want to maybe put a quick reminder out there. When I say a shift, this is what I mean. Six US Congress people, that's the tip of the iceberg, have written to the president of their own party mostly, which is kind of ironic, but at least they've made the effort. That's a first. That has not happened. That happened. That took work. A lobbying blitz by the largest human rights organisations in the world, Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Reporters Without Borders and many others. That's happening around the world and in the United States. MPs, cross party MPs from Mexico, from Brazil, from the UK have sent joint cross party letters to the United States government. 48 Australian MPs from all parties from all colours of our bizarre political spectrum. And as you'll know, if you look around you at this gorgeous little gathering this morning, that this issue, unlike any I've ever worked on or come across, unites people from very different political traditions. We may not agree with each other on everything, but we know that we agree with each other on this. And that goes from a gathering here, the gatherings in London outside Belmarsh prison, gatherings in front of the Mexican parliament in Brazil in every country on earth, that we can agree on this. Publishing is not a crime. Publishing is not espionage. And Julian Assange should be free. A sign of that shift is the long overdue, the desperately, shamefully overdue bipartisan support from our prime minister and whoever the leader of the opposition is these days saying enough. Enough is enough. Julian, this process has to end. That's the shift. And that's on you. That's because of the work that you have done over such a long period of time. It's safe to say that President Biden is not welcome on these shores until our citizen is home, where he can be reunited with his kids, his wife, his family and his supporters.