China is not necessarily our friend, but they don't have to be our enemy either. I agree with Murray, a reassessment of our military ties is required. I believe Australia should consider its position in relation to China, and at the same time our military alliances with the United States. We have paid a heavy price for US protection from Japan during WWII, being drawn into one senseless American war after another. A non-aligned, non-aggressive position would be of far more benefit than the present "lackey of America" status we now hold with other nations.

America will get us into wars, not defend us from them.
Any of you lot see US boots on the ground defending Ukraine?
The US is a toothless tiger with a hollowed out woke military that couldn't defend our nation even if it wanted to.

And the motives for the Assange case are political, not criminal.
- By a corrupt US bureaucracy that meddles in other nations internal affairs.

Assange didn't hack anything, he merely published info other whistleblowers sent him.
Our leaders aren't making any real effort to repatriate him, it's a stageshow.

It's funny how the young people today want to do away with all the old people and take their homes and wealth, while the older people cling to a corrupt US.
- This country is so completely stuffed.

Assange was naive in accepting and passing on stolen DNC emails, from the Russians, to advantage the Trump campaign over Clinton's.

If he is lucky he can serve any sentence in Oz &/or have it commuted; looks like he could do sometime in a regional low security prison in the sun while tending the vegetable patch, maybe running the library....

See David Corn in left leaning Mother Jones (17 Dec '21):

'Denounce Julian Assange. Don’t Extradite Him. The prosecution of the conniving WikiLeaks founder poses a threat to American journalism...

..But one PR problem with the case is that Assange is a highly unsympathetic character, for he is partly responsible for the damage done by Donald Trump during his presidency...

...United States has suffered greatly because of Assange. In 2016, he collaborated with the Russian attack on the US election to help Trump win. As has been detailed by several government investigations....after Russian intelligence teams hacked Democratic targets, they passed the stolen emails and documents to WikiLeaks, which then publicly disseminated the material.

The Senate report notes that Assange’s group “timed its document releases for maximum political impact.” That is, WikiLeaks wasn’t acting in a noble information-sharing manner. It sought to weaponize the information pilfered by Vladimir Putin’s operatives to cause harm to candidate Hillary Clinton, whom Assange and WikiLeaks had disparaged as a “sadistic sociopath” and a threat to the world. (“We believe it would be much better for [the] GOP to win,” WikiLeaks had tweeted.)'

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/12/denounce-julian-assange-dont-extradite-him/

Some people have some of the information wrong.
Assange received the files from that US trans soldier, just cannot
think of his/her name at present. Chelsea I think.
It was sentenced for downloading the files and passing them on to Assange.
One of the those that received them from Julian Assange was the New
York Post who published them. Also the Washington Post published them.
Those newspapers were not prosecuted.
On those grounds alone he should be released.