He is a much beloved gentleman rogue.

Invariably well-informed and well-spoken, even if somewhat self-centered or arrogant at times.

For him and his family, Im glad hes free.

Five years seems a pretty harsh sentence for publishing leaked information about governments behaving badly - isnt that what good journalists are supposed to do ?

> Mr Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, was part of a group of politicians across the political spectrum who had long campaigned for Mr Assange's release and visited the US to lobby legislators there on the matter.

> "There were so many people who were part of this process, and what it showed was people from both sides of politics, for different reasons, arrived at the same place," Mr Joyce said on Tuesday morning.

> "I don't agree with what he did, and I won't, but it wasn't illegal," Mr Joyce said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/great-encouragement-j...

I live in the center of Sydney. Every Friday in the city for as long as I can remember there's been a small but dedicated group of peaceful protesters gathering outside Town Hall. They must be over the moon today.

The Australian Ambassador to the United Kingdom is apparently flying with him today, so that should give some indication.

(It is probable that if those politicians had been particularly in touch with the views of Australians, they wouldn't have ended up in exile!)

Politicians and corporate journalists lie to you, and they hate Assange because he exposes their lies. That pretty much gives you your answer -- he is not universally hated by normal people at all.

Just googling around it seems Assange had support of the overwhelming majority of Australians (going by a 2023 poll conducted by a Sydney newspaper)

> 79 per cent of people said the Biden administration should drop its pursuit of Assange. Only 13 per cent disagreed. Eight per cent were unsure

> We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K.

Who are those? I can't think of any Australian politicians who are prominent in UK discourse, on Assange or any other topic.

I think he is viewed very positively. Australians appreciate law and order but we also love to see a rebel break through and restore common sense once in a while.

Australia has been a loyal US ally historically and so our politicians avoid criticizing US as not to jeopardize that relationship. It's been a thorny issue in the relationship though as it has made our politicians look weak/cowardly whenever the topic of Assange was approached.

My general impression is that Australians vary between neutral (they don't know and don't care what he did) to positive toward him.

Where I live (way out in the boonies), many people have told me that they have a lot of admiration for him. In some spaces in Melbourne, he seems to almost have a cult following.

I am sure he has his detractors in Australia but, so far, I have either not met any in person or they have kept their opinions to themselves.

I think politicians are more likely to dislike him than the general public does, which makes sense; after all, he targeted politicians and policy decisions.

>> We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K.

Does Australia actually exile people? I thought that was done away with long ago. If they are wanted for crimes in Australia then they would be extradited from the UK. Even informal exile only normally happens between countries that do not have extradition treaties. I suspect these politicians are simply expatriates living in the UK for professional or tax reasons.

I'd say a fairly large percentage would be disappointed that we let a citizen get treated like that and we did nothing as a country to assist, independent of anything else. Maybe I am out of touch though.

Could you clarify for me how he violated people’s privacy?

Oz is like most places, there's a large number of people for whom thinking for themselves from an even vaguely informed position presents too much of a logistical challenge (re. literacy, education, breadth of interest, pretense to regular reading, range of sources, adequate life experience to judge bias, ready echo chamber availability, swamp of familiarity, etc.). The minority of people who are educated, do hold broad enough interests and are capable of critical thinking are almost all in support of Wikileaks, IMHO. Some of them have been done in by the smear campaign, unfortunately.