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Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate, says dad.

Julian Assange may leave Wikileaks and run for the Australian Senate, possibly against Bob Carr, his father reveals in a TEN News special.

Julian Assange will run for the Australian Senate at the next Federal Election, according to his biological father, John Shipton.

TEN has the first-ever television interview with Assange’s father for its TV special tonight, presented by Hamish Macdonald.

Shipton tells Macdonald the party will be named ‘Julian Assange and WikiLeaks’ and he will run in either New South Wales or Victoria. He is strongly considering running in New South Wales to take on federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr.

“I think Julian shows considerable skill in putting together a diplomatic sentence and would be a good opponent for Mr Carr. Mr Carr, of course, is a skilled and accomplished politician so it would be an interesting fight,” says Shipton.

If he is successful, he will leave his post at WikiLeaks and return to Australia.

“WikiLeaks is a worldwide organisation and its work is worldwide… there are many people in WikiLeaks, not just Julian. Julian is the lightning rod, he takes all the heat while everyone else gets on with their work. As the demands of representing the people of NSW or Victoria required, of course, yes [he would return to Australia].”

When quizzed by Macdonald about running in Australia without claiming asylum, Shipton said: “All that you are required to have to nominate for the Senate or the House of Representatives is to be able to enrol. And to enrol, you need to be an Australian citizen, and not serving time, and to have been in Australia within in the last three years. Julian fulfils all of those.”

Julian Assange: A TEN News Special airs at 8pm tonight on TEN followed by Underground: The Julian Assange Story.

14 Responses

  1. First time i’ve heard of an Aboriginal passport.
    Being Aboriginal i got all excited about it, until i googled it. Turns out to be a sham passport issued out by one of our many self appointed leaders/spokepersons.

  2. I’d put this in the “off-hand speculation by someone not close to the person turned into a headline” basket. It’s an intriguing idea but until Assange himself confirms this, it’s not even hearsay.

  3. Stupid idea. Look what happened to Peter Garrett when he went into politics – totally lost his principles. Mr, Assange can achieve so much more by continuing outside the system and showing people where corruption lies

  4. Interesting. And particularly interesting (as usual) is your choice of photo David, which captures JA in a look much different to that of the usual victimised whistleblower.

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