Anthony Albanese’s hand-picked ambassadors slug taxpayers $100,000 for chaperoning Julian Assange home

Anthony Albanese’s hand-picked ambassadors in Washington and London have slugged taxpayers $100,000 in travel costs for escorting the convicted felon Julian Assange home to his native Australia.

The revelation underlines the enormous political and taxpayer capital invested by the Albanese government into securing the WikiLeaks’ founders’ release from jail.

While there has been broad backing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to personally lobby US President Joe Biden, to drop its request for Mr Assange’s extradition – a process started by the previous Trump Administration – there has been criticism of the hero’s welcome given by Labor to the convicted felon, who published hundreds of thousands of classified US documents more than a decade ago.

This involved UK High Commissioner and former foreign and defence minister Stephen Smith escorting Mr Assange on the flight to the Northern Mariana Islands, the US territory in the Pacific, where Mr Assange pleaded guilty to espionage.

And Prime Minister Anthony Albanese published a photograph of himself calling Mr Assange to welcome him back to Australia.

Following an opposition request for a breakdown of the costs of chaperoning Mr Assange home, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Mr Smith’s presence on the flight was necessary.

“A condition of Mr Assange’s bail was that he would be accompanied by High Commissioner Smith to a United States jurisdiction,” the minister wrote in a letter to Senate President Sue Lines.

This relates to Mr Assange’s prior history of skipping bail when he was ordered to be extradited to Sweden to face questioning over an alleged sexual assault.

Instead, he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy where he stayed for seven years to avoid facing prosecutors’ questions.

By contrast, Senator Wong did not cite any legal requirement for Kevin Rudd’s decision to attend in Saipan the capital, where he met Assange and flew with him to Canberra.

“Ambassador Rudd has played a central role in bringing the two sides together and travelled to Saipan to ensure arrangements with the Department of Justice proceeded as agreed,” Senator Wong said.

Both Mr Smith and Mr Rudd were featured prominently in media footage documenting Assange’s return to Australia.

In an interview on the ABC, Mr Rudd defended his presence as having been the point of contact for the US Department of Justice.

“Well, the truth of the matter is, number one, I had been the principal point of contact with the DOJ, the Department of Justice, kind of from the get-go, and with Mr Assange’s lawyers.”

Mr Rudd’s additional travel costs amounted to a $29,276 bill for taxpayers.

Mr Smith’s were slightly lower at $17,807. Added government costs amounted to a further $55,402 taking the total bill to just over $100,000.

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, who sought the breakdown in costs, told The Nightly that the ambassadorial overkill was a charade.

“I have no problem with Mr Assange returning to Australia,” Senator Sharma said.

“But sending our two most senior diplomats in the US and UK to accompany him personally was both unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer money.

“And it sent a damaging signal to our closest allies about the seriousness with which we treat the unauthorised disclosure of classified information.”

Dennis Richardson, former ASIO boss and an Ambassador to the US, told the ABC that the decision to have two ambassadors escort Assange home was extraordinary.

“He’s been treated a little like a celebrity,” Mr Richardson told the ABC.

“In this case, we appear to be celebrating someone for having engaged in a criminal offence.”

“Since when do prime ministers welcome back into our country people who have been found guilty of a criminal offence?

“This guy has succeeded in turning himself into a celebrity and I think the government has fallen for that two-card trick.”

The charter flight put on to fly Mr Assange to Australia cost $781,480.

This bill will be paid, mostly from funds raised by the German NGO Wau Holland Foundation which supports Mr Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.