Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Julian Assange's return to Australia

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has returned to Australian soil, after 14 years in confinement.

Assange pleaded guilty to an espionage change in exchange for his release - and will be focused on recovery in the coming days.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says Assange has been lying low since his arrival.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Old's Ossie correspondents with US aimas afternoon Heather, So,
Julian Assange's back, where is he?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Look? He's lying low flew in last night.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Wife and his dad were their very big day of
course for the family, as we know, success as many fathers.
So many politicians of both sides were lining up to
put themselves collectively on the back. Certainly a lot of
work behind the scenes by Kevin Rudd, who these days,
of course, the former Labour Prime Minister is the Australian
Ambassador to Washington. So there's joy that an Australian cent

(00:31):
is in after a twelve year ordeal, five of those years,
as we know, in a maximum security jail in London.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
He's out and he's home.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Accused of espionage threatening national security, is used of treason
or because he published those leak documents that basically embarrassed
the US government as a journalist, though he should have
been protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution
governing freedom of speech. And there's a number of people
over here today he was saying that what happened that

(01:00):
the fact that he was eventually charged with a relatively
minor offense flew to an American Pacific territory and pleaded
guilty to that minor charge, convicted, sentenced to time already served.
Has that now created a legal precedent? And other words,
can journalists in future be penned for exactly the same thing,
notwithstanding the fact there should be that protection of freedom

(01:24):
of expression. So let's just wait and see the way
that you know, which way the mop flops and all
of that.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, interesting stuff. Listen, that inflation number must be freaking
you guys out. I mean, are you staring down the
barrel now of multiple rises?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Potentially that's what I'm saying. Four percent in the year
to May.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
That's a six month high and up from three point
six percent the previous month.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
And that's high. I haven't expect, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Housing, food, transport, alcohol, all the essential food groups all
went up. The big surprise for economists who are now saying,
as you correctly point out, the Reserve Bank will have
to increase the official cash rate before Christmas, maybe as
early as the first week of August when the boarders
meet next, and that's only days after the next inflation

(02:08):
dartup for the June.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Quarter comes out. There will be pressure on the raise
the official cash rate.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
The Reserve Bank wants inflation back down between two and
three percent.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Four percent out of the question, and I'm not going
to let that stay there.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
And they tried to slow down the economy, So maybe
just WA's the space.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
So is Bruce Lherman up for some legal costs?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Is he? Well?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
I mean Channel ten has popped up in the federal
court today and said, I mean, look, his failed defamation
cost us almost well three and a half million dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
We're prepared to accept two million dollars as partial payment
for mister Luhrman. Well, good luck with that.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
He hasn't got two brush tax to rub together the Obviously,
Luhmann sued Channel ten over that interview. He was defamed,
he said, in an interview that ten conducted with Britney
Higgins in which he alleged she'd been raped Parliament House.
So Lermann missed that he failed to prove that Ten
had defamed him. He's been ordered now to pay two

(03:07):
million dollars. Well, good luck doesn't have the cash. Lisa Wilkinson, also,
we understand, has now settled her dispute with Channel ten.
She wasn't happy with the legal team that Ten had assembled,
she went out and hired her own silks. Well, that
bill came into about one and a half one point
seven million dollars, and Ten's now agreed to pay half

(03:28):
a million dollars of her legal fee, So that means
that she's up for over a million dollars herself. It's
a mess, never been anything other than a mess, mate,
and let's just hope we can draw a line under this.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
You're too right, Mars, Thank you very much. Enjoy your weekend.
Murray Old's Ossie correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
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