Key Points
- UK Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the US over the weekend.
- Australian Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said Mr Assange's case is being taken "very seriously".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will continue to engage "appropriately" over the British government's decision to approve the extradition of Julian Assange.
to intervene in the case to prevent Mr Assange from being handed over to the United States to face criminal charges.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday of the WikiLeaks founder to the US at the weekend.
He is wanted on 18 charges - including espionage and hacking - relating to WikiLeaks' release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which Washington said had put lives in danger.
Responding to the extradition decision for the first time, Mr Albanese on Monday said he stood by comments he made late last year, where he said he didn't see the purpose of the "ongoing pursuit" of Mr Assange and that "enough is enough".
He added his government would continue to focus on raising its position on the decision through diplomatic channels.
"There are some people who think that if you put things in capital letters on Twitter and put an exclamation mark, that somehow makes it more important," he said.
"It doesn't."
Mr Albanese also said he intends to "lead a government that engages diplomatically and appropriately with our partners".
Mr Assange's legal team has 14 days to lodge an appeal in the UK High Court.
His wife Stella Assange earlier said there has been a "shift" in the federal government's approach to her husband's case following Labor's election win.
Mrs Assange, a human rights lawyer, said she was "feeling a shift".
"It feels like we've been running a marathon for a long time, and you know, that's that's hard, mentally and physically," she told ABC radio on Monday.
"But now it feels like we have many people running alongside us and are at the finish line."
Stella Moris (right), Julian Assange's wife, looks on during a press conference in London, Britain, 17 June 2022. EPA/ANDY RAIN Source: EPA / ANDY RAIN/EPA
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has said Mr Assange's case had been taken "very seriously" and consular support will continue to be provided.
"It was last year that Anthony Albanese ... made clear that enough was enough for Julian Assange and the treatment that he had been subjected to," he told ABC radio on Monday.
"That was true, then it's even more true now."
Mr Giles said there was no better person to be advocating for Mr Assange than Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said he was concerned the Albanese government was "soft pedalling" on working to bring Mr Assange back to Australia.
"I'm very much hopeful that the government will act on the noises that they made in Opposition and do what they've said that they would do," he told ABC radio.
