While Assange has been granted Ecuadorean citizenship he remains an Australian citizen and has familial ties to this country. Assange has strong family ties to Australia: both his parents live here and are aging, and this is the country he grew up in and lived in for the first two and a bit decades of his life. Up until 2010 this was home.

Up until now the Australian government has had a very hands off approach to Assange’s plight. Early on there were nonsensical utterances by then prime minister Julia Gillard that Assange had committed offences under Australian law in publishing documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions by the US and its allies in the aftermath of 9/11. Fortunately that is no longer the attitude and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his government have been more circumspect in dealing with the Assange case. Turnbull rightly criticised Gillard’s response.

But there is now an opportunity for Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to assist in ensuring that this Australian citizen is no longer at risk of being subjected to US detention and can therefore leave the Ecuadorean embassy. This is because a key hurdle to Australian involvement in the Assange case has been removed, namely the Swedish warrant.

In documents obtained last year under FOI by lawyer and WikiLeaks advocate Kellie Tranter, the formal Australian position on the Assange case was outlined. Documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, written in February 2016 after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Assange was being unlawfully detained because of the US threat and the refusal of Sweden and the UK to rule out undertaking not to comply with an extradition request by Washington, indicate that Australia’s position was “it would not be appropriate for the Australian government to comment on the legal system of either the UK or Sweden which have matters on foot in relation to Mr Assange.”

Another document recommended that Bishop not accede to a request from some members of Assange’s legal team to intervene if the arbitrary detention was not brought to a close by the UK and Sweden. Again the reasoning was the same – Australia will not intervene in the active legal processes of other countries.