Stephen Smith will become the first Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom to visit Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange in prison.
In an interview with the ABC, to mark the commencement of his new post in London, the former defence and foreign minister said he would soon visit Mr Assange with a senior consular official.
"I'm very pleased that in the course of the next week or so he's agreed that I can visit him in Belmarsh Prison," Mr Smith said.
"My primary responsibility will be to ensure his health and wellbeing and to inquire as to his state and whether there is anything that we can do, either with respect to prison authorities or to himself to make sure that his health and safety and wellbeing is of the highest order."
The new high commissioner said Mr Assange's father, John Shipton, who has been a tireless advocate for his son's release, asked him if he would visit the prison where the 51-year-old has been locked up for nearly four years.
"His father approached me as the new high commissioner, asking if I would visit him. Through his lawyers, Mr Assange agreed to that visit," Mr Smith said.
"We had previously, before my time, made over 40 requests to see Mr Assange for consular purposes. None of those requests were taken up."
Mr Smith said he believed it was "very important" that senior consular officials met with Mr Assange.
The US is seeking to extradite Mr Assange from the UK on 18 charges relating to the publishing of thousands of military and diplomatic documents.
The UK has agreed to his extradition, but the Wikileaks founder is appealing that decision through the courts.
When asked whether it was part of his role to press the UK government to potentially reverse its approval of the extradition, made by previous Home Secretary Priti Patel, Mr Smith said it was now a matter for the courts.
"It's not a matter of us lobbying for a particular outcome. It's a matter of me as the high commissioner representing to the UK government as I do, that the view of the Australian government is twofold. It is: these matters have transpired for too long and need to be brought to a conclusion, and secondly, we want to, and there is no difficulty so far as UK authorities are concerned, we want to discharge our consular obligations."
Mr Shipton said the visit would allow Mr Smith to see the "terrible toll" his son's incarceration was having on his health and his family.
"It is especially heartbreaking on my daughter-in-law Stella and two young grandchildren Gabriel and Max," he said.
"The endless ordeals they must endure."
Greg Barns, who is a spokesman for the Assange Campaign, is urging the high commissioner to speak to his UK counterparts after his visit.
"It is important that the Australian government ramps up its efforts with Prime Minister Sunak to get Julian out of prison," he said.
An upcoming transformation of 'historic relationship'
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Smith said he expected his post as high commissioner to be dominated by a variety of issues including the new AUKUS deal, the Free Trade Agreement between the UK and Australia, and climate change policy, including "energy transition financing."
Mr Smith said his appointment comes "on the cusp" of a new era in Australia-UK relations, spruiking the AUKUS pact as a deal with "significant" benefits.
"I think the most important thing from my perspective as high commissioner is that I can articulate to the United Kingdom government that Australia is an enthusiastic, fully fledged participant of AUKUS," he said.
"Everyone, of course, has always seen the historic connections and the cultural and the people to people connections … but not enough people have understood the depth and the long term importance of UK direct foreign investment into Australia for our economic development."
Mr Smith worked as a political staffer to Paul Keating when he was prime minister in the 1990s
When asked what he made of Mr Keating's recent description of the AUKUS deal as being "the worst international decision" by a Labor government since conscription, Mr Smith said he did not want to be a commentator on "who's saying what about AUKUS", but he believed the deal was in the national interest.
"My own view as high commissioner is that this is a fundamentally important national endeavour. This will bring not only significant strategic and security benefits to Australia, it will also bring deeply significant economic benefits to Adelaide and Port Adelaide … and to Perth and South Perth."
Mr Smith believed that in the post-Brexit environment, Australia was at the front of the international trade pack when it comes to Britain.
"The UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement absolutely maximises the prospect for even greater investment and trade, and the fact that it's the first cab off the rank, so far as a post-Brexit UK is concerned, sends a very deep signal about the closeness of the economic relationship between Australia and the UK," he said.
When it comes to renewable energy, Mr Smith said Australia could learn from the UK on the transition to climate-conscious energy production.
"It is the case that it's taken Australia a bit longer to fully appreciate the opportunities for energy transition and energy transition financing and I think we can do a lot more on that front," he said.
"Is there a potential of learning from the UK on that front? Absolutely."
