Australia politics live: Julian Assange begins first day of freedom; ACT bird flu outbreak linked to NSW case | Australia news

There’ll plenty of reaction to Julian Assange’s dramatic return to Australia and not least how Australians in general view his return.

Our reporter Tory Shepherd has been looking at the different views about Assange who has proved a divisive figure over the years but who has nevertheless managed to gain support from wildly different parts of the poitical spectrum.

She writes:

A cross-party delegation of Australian MPs travelled to Washington last year to lobby the government to drop the prosecution. Labor representatives, Greens and an independent were joined by the larger-than-life Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and “Trumpian” right-wing Liberal Alex Antic.

Fast forward to now and Assange will be met by a media storm, not all of it welcoming.

Conservative broadsheet the Australian ran an opinion piece headlined: “Fittingly pathetic end to the tawdry tale of a traitor” and asked “Is he simply a criminal activist who endangered people’s lives or a crusader of press freedom that his backers claim him to be?”.

The Sydney Morning Herald asked whether it was a win for press freedom. “Perhaps,” Peter Greste, a journalist who was imprisoned on trumped-up terrorism charges in Egypt, concluded.

The plan is for Assange to retreat somewhere quiet to reacclimatise to life as a free man but, as Tory writes, that might not be possible:

Assange may seek solitude and ordinariness, but the clamour over his return home is unlikely to be easily quieted.

Read the whole piece here:

The NSW government says it is working with the ACT Government after the detection of a suspected case of bird flu in an egg production site in the ACT.

The detection was linked to the confirmation of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) at a farm in the Hawkesbury last Wednesday, NSW minister for agriculture Tara Moriarty said in a statement.

The NSW Government has offered assistance to the ACT minister for the environment, Rebecca Vassarotti in dealing with this biosecurity issue.

The statement said avian influenza was not a food safety concern, and it is safe to eat poultry meat and eggs after proper handling and cooking.

“I would like to reassure the Canberra community that the avian influenza virus is a low risk to the public. Transmission to humans is very rare, and unlikely unless there is direct and close contact with sick birds,” Vassarotti said in a statement on Wednesday.

The ACT located commercial egg farm has been locked down with no products, eggs, and machinery allowed in or out, and the site’s hens will be disposed of.

Welcome