God Help Australia?

Julian Assange May Become Australian Politician

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, decided to dive into politics and seems to have a real chance to win an upper house seat in Australia. Media reports confirm that whistleblowing website chief is pressing ahead with his plans to stand for election, and experts agree that he has quite a good chance of getting in.

UMR Research, the ruling Labor party’s internal pollsters, have carried out a survey, which revealed that 1/4 of people polled would vote for Julian Assange. It turned out that he is likely to take supporters of the Greens with him and might get a Greens Senate spot. Indeed, the survey showed that there was an impressive level of support for Assange which crosses party lines and is more concentrated among Greens voters.

Over 27% of Labor supporters confirmed that they would vote for Assange, as did 23% of Conservatives. The WikiLeaks founder said he would run for Aussie 76-seat Senate a few months ago, claiming to be a libertarian and “fierce defender of free media” were he elected to the upper house.

Now he’s being wooed by the Australian parties, but could also stand as an independent or establish his own party dedicated to advancing open government. Meanwhile, the experts point out that Australian politics is in a mess today, with political parties standing behind their leaders like the Roman senate stood behind Julius Caesar. Many Australians are currently becoming alarmed, watching the tendency of the last two governments to filter and censor whatever was noticed moved.

Julian Assange, known worldwide for his online service and the struggle against American government, is currently under house arrest in the United Kingdom, awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court in London on whether he can be extradited to Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault. As such, he seems to be quite an unusual choice for people to back.

In case Assange is allowed to be extradited to Sweden, he will find himself in trouble even if the prosecution fails to make the charges stick. The matter is that court cases related to sex accusations usually kill off political careers, even if the defendants are acquitted. This is because the stories are told in court which politicians would mostly prefer to keep under wraps.