Julian Assange's Ultimate Publicity Stunt: Running For Australian Senate?
from the really,-now? dept
Even for supporters of Wikileaks and what it tried to achieve, Julian Assange is a polarizing figure — often accused of letting his ego get in the way of good judgment. So, to be honest, it comes as little surprise that he’s announced plans to run for the Australian Senate, even while he’s still stuck in the UK, awaiting a ruling on being extradited to Sweden (with some concerns about eventually being extradited to the US as well). Wikileaks also announced plans to have someone else run against current Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who Assange feels has not done enough to support him. While there have been some questions about the legality of such a run, enough Australian legal experts seem to agree that he can probably do it. Whether or not he can actually get very much support is another question altogether. However, from an outside observer’s standpoint, it’s going to make the next Australian elections a lot more interesting.
Oh, and just for amusement’s sake, one Australian publication mocked Wikileaks for misspelling Gilard’s electorate, given its namesake’s similarities to Assange himself:
Assange had an electoral learning process of his own which played out live on Twitter yesterday morning, with a first message from the Wikileaks feed announcing only that the organisation would be “fielding a candidate to run against Julia Gillard in her home seat of Laylor (sic)”. Very shortly afterwards, a second tweet declared: “We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run.” The spelling error in the initial tweet betrayed a curious ignorance of Australian history, given that the electorate in question is named after Peter Lalor, who led the famous Eureka Rebellion at the Ballarat goldfields in 1854. One would have thought that Lalor, a radical activist who saw his efforts crudely suppressed by the authorities before going on to a distinguished career as a parliamentarian, might have been better known to Assange – if not to the extent that he would have spelt his name correctly, then at least so far that he might have misspelled it in a phonetically correct manner (“Lawlor”). But I digress.
I would be pretty surprised if this candidacy (or either candidacy if they really do raise two candidates) actually goes anywhere, but that won’t make it any less entertaining to follow.
Filed Under: australia, julia gillard, julian assange, parliament, politics, senate
Companies: wikileaks
Comments on “Julian Assange's Ultimate Publicity Stunt: Running For Australian Senate?”
He must be feeling the heat from the US, and the other people he pissed off. It’s much harder to exact revenge upon someone if they have state resources (ie intelligence services, armed forces ect) protecting them.
Assange has 87% approval rating amongst the Australian people, higher than any sitting politician. As an Aussie, I would be happy to vote for him. OK, so his personality may not be the greatest. He will learn, just like any other politician. He should come back to Australia and we will enfold him with love.
Re: Re:
Mr AC approval ratings are “AS SOMETHING” in Australia, so what did 87% of Australians appove him as ?
Julia might have a 30% approval rating as Prime Minister, for example.
Kevin Rudd had a higher approval rating that Gillard yet the labour party elected Gillard as PM and rejected RUDD.
That was based on their approval rating as preferred prime minister. (AS something, and against someone).
I doubt that 87% of Australians have ever heard of Assainge, and most that have would not know anything about him, including the fact he is ‘from’ Australia, (but not Australian).
If he does not even want to live here, dont expect people to accept him as Aussie.. you might but 25 million other people in Australia dont..
He’ll be lucky to get the required votes for pre-selection
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wow, 87% thats a record, proof please, or admit you are a lier.
Re: Re: Re:
OH NOES!!
Darryl escaped the asylum again!
Re: Re:
I’ll vote for him, couldn’t be any worse then Bob Carr as a senator that Gillard placed as Foreign Secretary… GEEZUS! Thought he left Politics with the NSW debacle *shakes head in wonder*
That will work HAHAHA
Whether or not he can actually get very much support is another question altogether.
SURE IS !!!!!!
NO ONE will vote for that idiot, Imagine it, that dickhead leaking his own comments and conversations !!.
He is someone you just know you cannot trust, plus if he gets a criminal record, or is rejected by ASIO as a ‘security risk’ he will NOT be legally allowed to run for Government.
Also the Australian people do not elect our senate, the senate is elected by the leader of the party.
Also not knowing how to spell, or do basic math, or even not knowing the price of a bottle of milk can (and HAS) resulted in being removed from your position, or losing any election.
We’ve allready rejected him as an Australian, he does not live here, but wants our support when he gets in the shit, that also does not wear well with the average Aussie.
Re: That will work HAHAHA
Darryl,
Kindly place your head in a bucket of water.. Pull it out..
See the hole that remains in the water? The size of that hole is the amount that the Average Australia (ie: myself) thinks of your idiotic statement. ie: Nothing!
Also not knowing how to spell, or do basic math, or even not knowing the price of a bottle of milk can (and HAS) resulted in being removed from your position, or losing any election.
WTF are you one mate? Think you need to renew your education in Australian Political History, and human nature in general!
We’ve allready rejected him as an Australian, he does not live here, but wants our support when he gets in the shit, that also does not wear well with the average Aussie.
The Average Aussie actually LOVES a story like his, it reminds us of the fuckup that was the Anzac landing, the fuckup that was the Brisbane Line (during WW2), and the fuckup that has always occurred with the USA and old colonial powers trying to tell us what we can and cannot do. And at last poll more than 80% of Aussies agree that Assange, though sometimes acting like a dickhead, is a fair dinkum true blue Aussie who has stuck his finger up at authority and we need to support him fully no matter what our so called Political masters think.
BTW: I know him, respect him, absolutely agree with his philosophy, and think you need to either stop and look around you at what Aussies actually are doing and thinking, or in the vernacular. Bugger off!
Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
And at last poll more than 80% of Aussies agree that Assange
Oh you know him, so that allowes you to talk your own bullshit.
What poll ? link please.. or is it a poll you conducted ? did you ask yourself do you agree with Assange ? and 8 out of the 10 times you asked yourself you said you did agree ?
You know him, WOW, I guess I am supposed to be impressed by that ? You respect him, again, I care! why ?
If you absolutely agree with his philosophy then in a few lines explain what that philosophy is ?
(I wonder why I dont expect you to be able to do that!!)
“it reminds us of the fuckup that was the Anzac landing, “
except Australians do not view it as a fuckup, and it’s ANZAC not Anzac, it’s an acronym not a word. So you really don’t know shit !!!
There was also NOT “ANZAC ‘landing'”, again, learn something before making an idiot of yourself.
I assume you are referring to the ANZAC’s Gallipoli campaign, that was far more than a “landing”…
Go away, learn something, then try again.
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
There are a few polls, a recent one is here http://essentialvision.com.au/approval-of-wikileaks
Strange how Aussies approve of something you state they don’t.
Whether you are immpressd by myself knowing Assange is only for you to decide, and it’s irrelevant to the discussion, I only stated it as a fact since I have stated it before within Techdirt (and elsewhere) and it stops the “Confiction/Bias” arguments.
If you want to know about his philosophy it is pretty simple. Read his Essays on Conspiracy and Authoritarianism and how you can control the abuses with a checks and balancing system of leaks. Here they are in one nice formatted pdf (via cryptome) http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf
Anzac or ANZAC is quite ok unless you are specifically stating the acronym for “Australian & New Zealand Army Corps” in which way you should use the Upper Case with fullstop variant. This is the same as Qantas or QANTAS. Both Words have entered into the Vernacular of Australian culture as words and are not normally used in their acronym state! Even the Macquarie dictionary has them both as Proper nouns now.
I hope you have leant something now, and I notice how you never queried about The Brisbane Line nor about how Australians do not like Authoritarian powers. But hey you are only a young troll, there is still lots to learn
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
nor about how Australians do not like Authoritarian powers. if that is the case, how do you expect to like Assinage ? (A.K.A “THE ASS”)
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
approval of wikileaks does not equate to approval of Assainage !!!
not even the “wikileaks” group can agree or have that high a level of ‘approval’ of assainage.
it’s like saying if you approve of the Australian Government, you approve of Gillard !!
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
I asked YOU for your opinion of what his philosophy, not what you can google as his philosophy, clearly you are not capable of forming your own opinion, making you simply a dullard fanboi.
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
nor about how Australians do not like Authoritarian powers. Name any group, or country or individual that DOES LIKE Authoritarian power ???
Can you ?, makes you sound well stupid !! to say that kind of thing.
Qantas is a BRAND name, NAME that was an acronym, but was used as a name. like it’s FOSS not Foss, ANZAC is a group of people or an acronym for a group of people in the past.
like the RAAF or the RAN or the ADF, none of them are correct if Ran, Raaf and Adf as they are not names just as FOSS is not a name, or the GPL, Linux on the other hand is trademarked as Linux.
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
Approval of Wikileaks release of leaked information remains unchanged since this question was asked over 12 months ago. 53% approve of Wikileaks activities and 26% disapprove.
80% of Greens voters approve compared to 55% of Labor voters and 51% of Liberal/National voters.
60% of men approve and 22% disapprove while women split 45% approve/30% disapprove. Younger respondents (aged 18-34) are also more likely to approve ? 61% approve and 16% disapprove.
There are a few polls, a recent one is here http://essentialvision.com.au/approval-of-wikileaks
So you dont mind lying either ?? did you expect no one to look ? your the idiot who provided the leak.
Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
It is hilarious to follow the “saga” of Julian a/k/a alleged sexual predator (in Sweden).
If he broke the American law and if he is so confident of winning his (possible) American charges by relying on the American Constitution – what is he crying for? Why is he in the need of “help” from his homeland Australia? Is he afraid of a bit of jail-time? Why? He is a big boy, he should know the risks and he should be prepared to take it on his chin. He is only facing life – anyways – not death.
He is definitely alleged to have placed his erect sexual organ inside the anatomical cavities of Swedish women without consent. This is a disgusting and self-evidently unlawful act. Yet unconfirmed, there might also be a sealed indictment pending in the US for god knows what.
Does he really believe that all is good when he just denies everything: “No, I did not place my erect sexual organ inside the anatomical cavities of those women this is just a conspiracy designed to get me to the US…” and “No, I have not broken the American law because I’m just a journalist who encourages American military personnel to steal confidential military data and then leak it to the world…”
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
You are aware that the Swedish definition of rape is different to other countries, right?
Assange had consentual sex with both women. The rape allegation is over whether or not he wore a condom – an in both cases there is doubt over whether his objection is enough to constitute “rape”, as he did concede to their request to wear one.
I’m not saying the following is the be all and end all on the topic, but it is a good read to understand some of the issues on this particular subject. Feel free to research further on your own.
http://thesydneyglobalist.org/archives/2017
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
and the US practice of locking up forign nationals in locations not Technically under their law and torturing them to get the outcomes they want is of no concern what so ever, obviously.
nor the calls for his assasination by US officials.
while he could win the court case, his general well being is quite likely to be endangered.
Re: That will work HAHAHA
Darryl is wrong, as per usual.
“rejected by ASIO as a ‘security risk’ he will NOT be legally allowed to run for Government”
He has the right to stand for parliament as an Australian citizen. If ASIO could knock people out from standing for parliament, then they would have done it long ago. They do not have that power. There would be a huge protest if they were ever to attempt to get it.
“Also the Australian people do not elect our senate, the senate is elected by the leader of the party.”
Ouch. The Australian senate is elected by proportional representation, by the Australian people. Darryl has evidently never voted in an Australian federal election.
“Also not knowing how to spell, or do basic math, or even not knowing the price of a bottle of milk can (and HAS) resulted in being removed from your position, or losing any election.”
Nope. No Australian politician has lost their seat due to deficiencies in spelling, maths or knowledge of the price of a litre of milk.
“We’ve allready rejected him as an Australian,”
No, we haven’t. Check out his approval rating.
“he does not live here, but wants our support when he gets in the shit, that also does not wear well with the average Aussie.”
He is entitled to enjoy consular support from the Australian government, if he is in trouble overseas, just like any other Australian citizen. We are all aware of that. Some of us are rather disappointed with the poor level of support he has been getting from the present Australian federal government.
Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
If darryl is the average Aussie Australia is doomed.
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
Nope Darryl is just a sad and misinformed drongo.
Re: Re: Re:2 That will work HAHAHA
Go back to the 1960’s drongo boy !! Cobber, fair dinkum, stone the crows, coowee !!!!
Re: Re: Re:3 That will work HAHAHA
You are only fooling the Americans. It is not “coowee”, but “cooee”. Give it up.
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
yes, our dollar really sucks, our economy is stalled, we have a massive housing crisis, we caused the GLOBAL economic fuckup, weve had ENRON and Burnie maddoff’s !!!
oh wait, im not in the US !!!
Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
He has the right to stand for parliament as an Australian citizen. If ASIO could knock people out from standing for parliament, then they would have done it long ago.
HAHAHAHAHAHA,, classic,,, think ‘fish and chips’ and “please explain” !!! and prison for trying to stand for parliament by illegal means.
Re: Re: Re: That will work HAHAHA
You are referring to Pauline Hanson. Her legal troubles were something to do with One Nation party membership registration. Check out her Wikipedia article for details. She could stand for election to any Australian parliament, any time she wished. Neither ASIO nor the law would prevent her.
Mispelled Gillard before the quote.
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So ?? Im not running for Parliment.. (oh, and I also dont care)
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Doesn’t matter. If you’re going to make comments about how other’s can’t spell then you would do well to make sure you aren’t making any similar errors yourself. Otherwise, you come off as a loon and a hypocrite.
Also, since you obviously DON’T CARE (about spelling that is) then it seems pretty stupid for you to bring it up as a talking point at all for why someone shouldn’t be running for office. Since it obviously doesn’t matter to you, as far as importance.
Food for thought.
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you do not have to be a painter to be an art critic, you do not have to be a musician to be a music critic,
you do have to be able to lead people, and read and write if you want to be a politician. I dont want to be a polly, nor do I have to spell every word correctly to effectively perform in my profession.
I dont care, because if all you can do is be critical of someone who comments here’s spelling, you have shown your own failure to effectively counter any of the reasoning provided in the argument (which you may or may not understand).
Guys, as an (educated) Australian (including in politics) all I can say is..
..look at what we have.
Now look at Assange.
There is no way he could make it any worse. A bit of leadership and understanding of how the world works might actually be good for this country.
Aussie’s really are not very smart.
Julian is and will be a hero in the USA
techdirt is really about mudslinging….
Re: Re:
Aussie’s really are very smart.
Julian is and will be always a hero in Australia
Techdirt is a great place to meet mudslinging trolls/shills….
There fixed it for ya 😉
Re: Re:
Aussie’s really are not very smart.
great english, try
“Aussie’s are not really very smart”
or
“Aussie’s are really very smart, NOT”
or
“Not really, Aussie’s are very smart”
Typical of Uncle Sam to be discriminatory, and/or racist,
Re: Re: Re:
…
you realise that the only problem in his sentence was the one thing you didn’t correct, right?
it’s plural, not ownership. Aussies, not Aussie’s.
and the last thing you suggested says the opposite of the rest.
that said, i’ll conceede that in the origional sentence it should be ‘aren’t’, not ‘are not’. (the fact that it’s a single word, not two, changes the viable word orders.)
(though i’ve noticed a tendency amongst americans to write ‘not just’ as ‘just not’ … or was it the other way around? regardless, when negating and adjective or adverb it’s not uncommon for them to put the ‘not’ After it… resulting in the sentence reading as if they had negated the noun or verb instead and NOT the adjective/adverb.)
I don’t think publicity is the reason for it. I suspect i’t to make it quite a bit more difficult for the Australian government to conveniently ignore other countries extraditing him around the world without objecting.
Some pretty unlikely people manage to get themselves elected into the senate here (I’m Australian), so I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see him succeed.
Urk, I’m embarrassed to have admitted I’m Australian, after going back and reading some of the other comments by Australian here… 🙁
For the record, I’ll vote for Assange if given the opportunity.
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Do you live in the seat of lalor ? because if you dont, you cannot vote for him. Unless you intend to move house.
But it is not embarrassing for you NOT to know that right !!!
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He’s not running in Lalor, idiot. He hasn’t even announced which state he’ll run in.
Wikileaks are providing SOME OTHER candidate to run in Lalor – the LOWER HOUSE, not the senate.
God I wish I didn’t have to interact with people like you.
Just a note from a pedant
They did at least spell it phonetically correct, contrary to that politician’s statement. It is Lay-lor, not Law-lor.
Also, it’s worth noting that Australian politicians are granted Parliamentary privilege which allows them to speak with recourse, especially in regards to defamation. It has been used in the past to make controversial material a matter of public record (everything said in Australian parliament is recorded in Hansard which is available to all Australians), the example I can remember was Euthanasia material, but I think there are others.
This would be a valuable tool that Assange could use to publish some Wikileaks material. If elected of course.
Re: Just a note from a pedant
Actually, they are right. It is “Lawlor”, when pronounced phonetically. As the article states, it was named after Peter Lalor, of the Eureka Stockade fame.
For some reason, while we still pronounce Peter Lalor as “Lawlor”, the pronunciation of the town has shifted to “Laylor”. Unfortunately, this is largely due to a lack of understanding, but if enough people do it, the trend becomes the rule.
My grandmother lived in Lalor when I was a child, and it was always pronounced “Lawlor” by the locals. Now even the locals seem to have shifted to “Laylor”.
*shrug* Its not a big deal, but the article was correct, as far as it goes.
Re: Re: Just a note from a pedant
Looks like you’re right.
It seems no one has told anyone in Ballarat what the correct pronunciation is, as everyone up here definitely says “Laylor”.
Re: Just a note from a pedant
Australian politicians are granted Parliamentary privilege which allows them to speak with recourse
yes, parliamentary privilege, means while they are in parliament (holding parliament) they have that privilege, not outside the doors of the parliament.
so what you are saying is that Assinage would be able to lie (legally) now instead of lying illegally.. that’s going to help..
Julian needs to become an ambassador, immunity ftw.
Please tell me that Darryl is NOT an Aussie! We have enough problems with complete idiots in this country already without publicising world wide.
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He is. He’s insulted Americans for not liking Fox on the basis that other news sources exist.
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no, no no, I insulted “some” Americans for being stupid !!, there is a difference..
Re: Re: Re: Re:
And you paint everyone who doesn’t agree with you as a piracy apologist, or a pirate.
Your lack of standards is telling.
Re: Re:
Darryl cannot possibly be an Aussie. He has made dumb mistakes in his posts, that would not be made by any alert Australian citizen.
I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve donated to Wikileaks even with the financial blockade and I do believe the US is very wrong in many ways about all that is happening both to Wikileaks and Bradley.
However, if he gets elected he’ll get both a powerful tool to protect himself and to create a legal base for whistleblowers in Australia (making it potentially a safe heaven for such ppl). Of course it can go wrong…
I think it’s something to follow with interest rather than pure amusement.
Re: Re:
I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve donated to Wikileaks even with the financial blockade and I do believe the US is very wrong in many ways about all that is happening both to Wikileaks and Bradley.
Agreed. Even the legit case they may have had against Manning has been soured by the methods they used.
However, if he gets elected he’ll get both a powerful tool to protect himself and to create a legal base for whistleblowers in Australia (making it potentially a safe heaven for such ppl). Of course it can go wrong…
I’m not sure this is an issue? Having a tool to protect himself would only be a bad thing if he was guilty of something – which is highly contentious at this stage. The sexual assault allegations were raised and dropped – then raised again by lawyers when the whole Wikileaks thing gained publicity. The facts in this area are murky and dubious – on both sides.
As for the legality of Wikileaks – again, highly contentious. Whether personal opinions tend towards his actions being right or wrong, legally there hasn’t been a case made for his actions being illegal. If his actions are legal, Assange having some tools to protect himself may be a good thing.
Finally, I’m not sure there is an issue with Australia becoming a safe haven for whistleblowers. “Safe haven” implies illegality – whistleblowing is a legal action, and doesn’t require a safe haven from anything except extortion and aggressive persecution. Personally, I’m fine with Australia being a safe haven from those actions. (As a side note, it was interesting watching all the major Australian news outlets prominently display contacts for whistleblowers at the height of the Wikileaks publicity.)
I think it’s something to follow with interest rather than pure amusement.
I also agree with this! Although I think the interesting aspect will be regarding the legality of Wikileaks, and the US Government’s reactions to Wikileaks/Assange’s actions.
Personally, I think he has some great ideals, but is a bit of a tosser. Hell, it’s a combination that probably makes for a successful politician! But I would like to see some of his ideals – especially regarding openness and transparency of government actions – become more of political focus. And running for government may achieve some of this. If Assange’s ego doesn’t get in the way.
Democracy
Julian is one of the most intelligent Australians alive, bringing attention to the very significant issue of the way in which our ?democratic governments? treat their citizens, and at great personal risk…In Australia and around the world. It is indeed what our fathers thought they were giving their lives for as ANZACs.
As a thinking Australian I?ve chosen not to participate in the vote for many years because none of the candidates nor parties deserved it, in my opinion. I will be registering again in the hope that Assange is able to get through this latest barrier (of his own chosing, once again).
My own life is gladly being spent as a global citizen, seeking the truth and an understanding of how to share it for the benefit of our collective community.
Bring it on.
Re: Democracy
Democracy, by someone who admits they dont vote !!! HAHAHA..
Re: Democracy
Julian is one of the most intelligent Australians alive
We’ll he’s at least got you fooled 🙂 Mr I cant be fucked to vote, but still want to make my opinion heard.
I looked up the word “liability” and there was a picture of Assange. He isn’t doing anything to further Wikileaks anymore, he is now using it as a crutch to support his cult of personality.
Too bad most people didn’t spot it sooner.
Re: Re:
very true, but I do suspect that many people see “The ASS” for exactly what he is, took me about 5 seconds to see that he is just like Masnick, thinks he is better than EVERYONE else, so therefore he can make up his own rules.
These people are generally easy to pick out..
This guy’s 15 minutes are over and he doesn’t like it so he is going to try to force himself upon the public. If he’s elected and then convicted for sexual assualt he can join the ranks of politicians who have raped and pillaged their way to the top.
If Assainge believes he is so innocent, and can prove it, why is he not on the first flight to sweden to clear his name ?
I can think of one reason !
Re: Re:
Assainge
Assinage
Assainage
Assinage
Assainge
Darryl: HIS GODDAMN NAME IS JULIAN ASSANGE!!!
A S S A N G E
LERN 2 SPEL, MORAN!
"Reason"
Because he came up with the “conspiracy scenario” which was born in his “intelligent and brilliant” mind that if he steps onto the Swedish soil he will be immediately extradited to the USA. :))) This in particular is hilarious as there is zero evidence as to this. Indeed, extradition from UK to US would be more quicker than from Sweden. Assange also claims that something referred to as “temporary surrender” would somehow bypass his “rights” in Sweden and that is why he could be “extradited easily”. The truth is that “temporary surrender” is no easier avenue to extradite than extradition without “temporary surrender”.
Sum summarum, Assange doesn’t want to go to Sweden because he is afraid that he will be convicted of inserting his erect sexual organ into anatomical cavities of female individuals without consent. If this would occur (which I believe will) his reputation (if any) evaporates into the air. After that, being a convicted sexual predator, his position in an American jail would be… hmm… well, somewhat difficult to say the least. 🙂
Dreaming
In the history of Australian Politics only one Prime Minister has been beaten at an election whilst holding the PM’s position. That was John Howard and that was by a high profile, well known TV personality with the support of the Labor Party.
I doubt if an Independent would even get enough votes to qualify for any election cost rebates.
As for a senate seat, well a guy in his late 20’s who have never had a job in his life managed to secure a senate seat with less than 2% of the vote. If he can do it anyone can. it would be interesting if say Julian did win a seat and held balance of power.
For non Australian all this senate stuff would make little sense as the Australian Senate is a different kettle of fish to the USA one. Each state vote for their chosen candidate and the 12 with the highest percentage of the total vote win the prize. After that they do little.
In the history of Australian Politics only one Prime Minister has been beaten at an election whilst holding the PM’s position. That was John Howard and that was by a high profile, well known TV personality with the support of the Labor Party.
I doubt if an Independent would even get enough votes to qualify for any election cost rebates.
As for a senate seat, well a guy in his late 20’s who have never had a job in his life managed to secure a senate seat with less than 2% of the vote. If he can do it anyone can. it would be interesting if say Julian did win a seat and held balance of power.
For non Australian all this senate stuff would make little sense as the Australian Senate is a different kettle of fish to the USA one. Each state vote for their chosen candidate and the 12 with the highest percentage of the total vote win the prize. After that they do little.
I wish the best luck to Julian Assange! (I think all ‘truth fighters’ do)