Cathy Vogan: Gary Kennedy, you’re here today at the ACTU Congress, do you have something to say?

Gary Kennedy: Well basically, what I’d like to say is that I think that the ACTU Congress should move a motion of support for WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange from the floor. To ensure that Julian is not extradited firstly to Sweden, ‘cause we’re very sure that once he goes to Sweden, he’ll be extradited to America and once he gets there he will be treated as a terrorist. Which is completely unfair, because Julian has done nothing illegal.

Cathy Vogan: Do you believe he should be treated like any other Australian?

Gary Kennedy: Absolutely, in actual fact, the government of the day should be insisting that he comes homes to Australia, so he can be supported and protected over here, as opposed to the Prime Minister of Australia saying that he’s done the wrong thing. The Australia Federal Police have said that he has done nothing wrong, he’s done nothing illegal. He’s broken no laws at all. All he’s actually done is exposed certain governments of the world for the dirty tricks they play on each other and some of the dirty deeds they have been up to, especially recently in Iraq and in Afghanistan. That’s vital information that we, as members of the World community, need to have access to, need to see, but he has nothing to put in jeopardy not one single military personnel, at any time, in any theatre of conflict anywhere in the World and therefore he should be treated with respect, not as a criminal.

Cathy Vogan: Don’t you think even more so as he won the Sydney Peace Prize, the Walkley Award...?

Gary Kennedy: The man is a hero, the man is an absolute hero. He has done nothing wrong other than post information that has been vetted to make sure nobody’s at risk, he’s put it on the World wide net for everybody to look at, to download and study.

Cathy Vogan: Do you think there is a lot of misinformation to battle?

Gary Kennedy: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean people that are in the Union Movement and are articulate and are political, should know exactly what is going on….but general Joe Blow public, they just hear the word terrorist, they hear the word that he has exposed our Military Personnel to danger and possible harm, which is wrong, it’s totally wrong. That’s what the public seems to think so we need to educate the public that he has done wrong, he’s done nothing illegal. In actual fact he has given us good information to base future votes for Government, future votes people, future votes for actual Countries. It’s helped us immensely.

Cathy Vogan: Do you believe he would make a good Senator?

Gary Kennedy: Oh, absolutely and that’s the next part of the campaign. Basically, while he has not been found guilty of an criminal charges, even though he’s held in custody he can still stand for the Upper House and we will ensure that we get the message out there and that the people say, this is the sort of Politician we want and a man that’s honourable, a man whose articulate, a man whose intelligent whose got integrity plus. That’s the kind of Politicians we want not some of the current crop we have.

Cathy Vogan: Do you think for those precise reasons that people don’t want him around, that people in power don’t want him around? Are they frightened of Julian?

Gary Kennedy: Absolutely, because he cannot be put into harness, he cannot be corralled. The man has integrity and honour and he does what he thinks is right for the greater good. So, he wouldn’t be much of a Labor Party or a Liberal Party or a Country Party candidate at all. As an Independent Senator he would bring a lot of morality to the Upper House of the Australian Government.

Cathy Vogan: Doesn’t that seem to be the spirit of Australia?

Gary Kennedy: One would think so… one would think so. However, that’s not the way it is, I mean Politics now is a fairly robust sort of a game, but we seem to be turning out a whole crop of Politicians out are just sycophants to the Foreign Policy of America and we need to break away from that because American will drag us into all sorts of dangers and adventures all ‘round the World, which will kill our young men and women and they will dump us if needs be and someone else comes along that’s more of a friend than we are.

Cathy Vogan: How would your feel if you were his parents?

Gary Kennedy: Proud, proud but very, very worried. They know full well what will happen to Julian Assange if he’s extradited to America. We’ve had Senators…ahh…Presidential hopefuls calling for his assassination, calling for his assassination. The Australian Government should be outraged, they should be lodging an official protest and they should be protecting this person. We had Mark Arbib who was caught out by WikiLeaks giving information to his contacts in America; confidential cabinet information was given to Americans. Instead of the government attacking Mark Arbib for what he’d done wrong, that was tantamount to spying on behalf of the Americans. All that was done was that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks was attacked. That’s the level of Government we have in this Country currently and we have to try to turn that around to make sure this Government does the right thing not only by the Australian public and but also for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Cathy Vogan: It seems to be the case in America that war crimes aren’t punished, whistleblowers are. Is that the way it’s turning in Australia?

Gary Kennedy: Absolutely, absolutely. We have a person that has done nothing illegal. I can’t emphasis that enough, he’s done nothing illegal. He did not steal this information; it was given to him. They vetted the information and they posted it. There is no single person put in jeopardy anywhere in the World, it’s embarrassed the British Government, it’s embarrassed the American government, but it’s done nothing to harm their military personnel.

Cathy Vogan: I don’t know if you saw Q and A when Roxon said that he fled Sweden. How do you feel when the Prime Minister, whose a Lawyer, says someone has committed a crime, an Attorney General gives false information about the case? Is this just not taking an interest in it at all?

Gary Kennedy: I think this is two things, basically, they haven’t done their research properly, they haven’t taken into account that this guy, as an Australia Citizen, should be supported and also there’s very sycophantic support for anything American says at the moment, even the current Labor Government is very sycophantic towards American Foreign Policy and American Policy. Now they’ve been, they have had the evidence presented to them that he has committed anything illegal, they should have retracted their statements. However, they have done nothing to recant those statements or that misinformation. It’s up to us to educate the public and to make sure this issue stays in the forefront, to make sure that people get the facts and not the fiction and we bring Julian home to Australia, so we can support him properly in Australia.