The Australian government has moved to dampen expectations of a breakthrough in the case of Julian Assange, saying there are limits to what diplomacy can achieve.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said Australia would continue to express the view to both the US and UK governments that the case against the WikiLeaks co-founder “has dragged on long enough and should be brought to a close”.
“We are doing what we can, between government and government, but there are limits to what that diplomacy can achieve,” Wong told the Senate on Thursday.
Assange remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US attempt to extradite him to face charges in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as well as diplomatic cables.
The Greens used Senate question time on Thursday to ask whether the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had raised the ongoing prosecution and detention of the Australian citizen with the US president, Joe Biden, on 14 March.
Albanese, Biden and the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, met in San Diego on that day to announce the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plans.
Wong declined to be specific about the timing of any representations, but she said the rule of law and separation of powers were important principles in a democracy, prompting interjections from the Greens.
“No amount of bellowing at me from that end of the chamber is going to change the fact that a court has to determine the legal process,” she said.
“So we can raise these issues, as I have, and as the prime minister has, but we are not able to alter the judicial processes of another country.”
Wong acknowledged that there was “a depth of community sentiment” about the case and said she wanted to make clear that she had also engaged with Assange’s family.
“While there are legal proceedings on foot, it is very difficult for there to be resolution between governments. I think that is an observation of fact.”
The Greens’ justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said Wong’s response to his questions gave “no comfort to supporters of Assange who expected this government to be taking strong diplomatic action to secure Assange’s release”.
“The idea that quiet diplomacy must be so silent that the government can’t tell the public or the parliament if the PM even spoke to the president is bizarre,” Shoebridge said.
“A disturbing conclusion you could draw from those answers is that the Albanese government has given up on diplomacy, and that would be a tragedy for Julian Assange.”
But the Labor MP Peter Khalil, who chairs the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, said he believed “some progress” had been made.
“I’ve engaged quite a bit with Julian’s family members … and I’ve tried to do some things behind the scenes,” Khalil told Guardian Australia’s political podcast last week.
“I’m a strong supporter of that fundamental principle of a free press.”
Khalil said the “Bring Julian Assange Home” parliamentary friends group had recorded a message urging Biden to drop the charges.
“This is working through the US system as well, so this is a decision that [involves] both White House and Department of Justice,” Khalil said.
The White House has previously said Biden was “committed to an independent Department of Justice” when asked about the Assange case.
In November, Albanese contrasted the ongoing pursuit of Assange with the case of the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who was released in 2017 when Barack Obama commuted her 35-year military prison sentence for leaking the information.
