What we learned: Thursday 27 June
With those remarks from Rudd that’s where we’ll leave the blog for tonight, but first a quick recap of the main events:
Simon Birmingham said the PM’s phone call to Julian Assange was not “appropriate”. He went on to say Assange did not deserve a “warm embrace” from Anthony Albanese “like some type of hero”.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said on Assange: “My job was to advocate on behalf of an Australian citizen.”
Julian Assange is “overjoyed” and “marvelling at the horizon”, his wife, Stella Assange, has said.
Assange’s lawyer thanked Albanese, Wong, Mark Dreyfus and Kevin Rudd for their help.
Barnaby Joyce took aim at supermarkets: “A loss of dignity for the lady pushing the trolley”.
Albanese warned of danger of “another decade of denial” on climate.
David Pocock said Labor and Coalition were “out of touch” with young people after decision on duty of care bill.
Inflation data raised the spectre of an RBA interest rate hike.
Stella Assange and supporters spoke to media at Parliament House.
The Senate voted 40 to 20 to split build-to-rent changes from the Treasury bill.
Peter Dutton said: “We’re huge supporters of renewable energy.”
Woolworths limited customers to buying two cartons of eggs in NSW, ACT and Victoria.
The Coalition and Greens teamed up to block the NDIS bill in parliament.
We’ll be back tomorrow morning with the Australia news live blog.
Updated
Kevin Rudd credits PM with ensuring Assange’s return to Australia
Former prime minister turned ambassador to Washington Kevin Rudd says Julian Assange’s release from jail and return home is important for all Australians because anyone could find themselves overseas and needing their government’s help.
Rudd told ABC TV on Thursday:
It matters for all Australians because you don’t know when you’re going to end up in a pickle.
Speaking to journalists later, he said the responsibility of any Australian government was to deal with every consular case. Rudd said:
That’s what we’ve been doing.
He said each set of circumstances was different.
You just you never know when someone is going to a friend of yours or relative is going to end up in a pickle somewhere.
Rudd credited the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, with being the “principal linchpin” in ensuring the plea deal was reached that saw Assange released.
The truth is, doesn’t matter how good your diplomatic team is, you need prime ministerial authorisation, prime ministerial direction and frankly a clear prime ministerial mandate to engage the US system at a level of seniority, which would make a difference. That’s what made this possible.
He said knowing the Australian executive government was unwavering in its determination to resolve the case enabled him and his diplomatic colleagues to navigate the tricky points in negotiations.
Let me tell you what was absolutely fundamental – and I’m not just saying this – to engage the US administration, confident in the basis that the prime minister and the foreign minister were absolutely resolute on the need to bring this case to a close. So obviously, on the way through, you’re going to have ebbs and flows, points of things nearly being resolved and then unresolved.
But the only way this worked was not because you had me or anybody else, doing negotiations. [It was] because we could confidently look the folks that we’re dealing with in the eye and say ‘our prime minister wants this fixed’. And that’s what we did.
Rudd said his interest as a diplomat was in stopping the Assange case “being a diplomatic problem” between Australia and the United States.
I didn’t want it to end up a long-term irritant.
He and Australia’s high commissioner to Britain, Stephen Smith, accompanied Assange on the flight from London back to Australia via Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
Rudd said they spoke about a range of issues including Assange’s experiences in jail, which he called “the elephant in the room”.
Updated
