Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Denison. He was formerly an army officer and then intelligence analyst.

In 2003 Wilkie resigned from his position in the ONA, an Australian intelligence agency, over concerns that intelligence was being misrepresented for political purposes in making the case for Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the Howard government.

Since then he has been active in Australian politics. He was an unsuccessful Australian Greens candidate for both the federal division of Bennelong in the 2004 federal election and for the senate in Tasmania at the 2007 federal election. In 2010 he ran as an independent for the state seat of Denison at the Tasmanian state election, narrowly missing out on the final vacancy. Later in the year, again as an independent, he ran for and won the federal seat of Denison at the federal election.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilkie

Rob Oakeshott has joined fellow independent MP Andrew Wilkie in cautioning Ms Gillard on her response to the WikiLeaks affair.

Mr Oakeshott says Mr Assange deserves the presumption of innocence.

"I would hope from here on in they would focus on helping an Australian citizen in trouble before the law in another country," he said.

"I would hope they would focus on the presumption of innocence for all Australian citizens, including Julian Assange."

A spokesman for Mr McClelland says the Australian Federal Police has been asked to examine WikiLeaks material as it comes to light to determine whether an official investigation is warranted.

Mr McClelland says even though he considers the leaks to be "gossip", he has ordered the AFP to investigate because some of the documents include more serious information like security secrets that could lead to the destruction of things like electricity grids.

The Attorney-General has likened the pending investigation into Mr Assange and WikiLeaks to the investigation into public servant Godwin Grech, which took the AFP more than a year.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Government needs to work out a position and act appropriately.

"This whole question of whether or not he may or may not have broken laws, at least as the Government's commentary is concerned, seems to show that this is not really an adult government," he said.

Mr Abbott says Senator Brandis has made the Opposition's opinion clear in that he believes Mr Assange has acted in a way that is morally reprehensible but did not appear to breach Australian law.

Meanwhile, the Opposition says leaked cables show the Government did not reveal how concerned China was about last year's defence white paper.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/10/3090549.htm

Australia's failures to provide national protection for rights are now so many over so long that the failure itself becomes a grimly interesting subject. Australians have become a unique species: a people without national guarantees of free speech or freedom of assembly or of due process. And we seem happy to be so bereft of protection. It makes us a species worth studying.

For 50 years Labor has promised a bill or charter of rights once it's back in power in Canberra. And every Labor government has let Australia down without a fight. This time Robert McClelland set Frank Brennan's team off on its national journey of exploration and Kevin Rudd ditched their proposed charter in April without a meeting, without a word of explanation.

Elsewhere in the world in these past 50 years, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa have all signed up to rights regimes of one kind or another. God bless Canada for doing so twice. So Australia's failure is of a particularly interesting order.

Victoria and the ACT have charters now and there is some prospect of another in Tasmania. That is entirely welcome. But despite all the hopes and campaigns of the past half century, Australians remain uniquely exposed to mistreatment by national government. We muddle through, hoping and trusting. It's the Australian way.

After the latest failure, the human rights bandwagon must stay under tarps in the garage for many years. My advice - speaking as someone who did nothing useful during the Brennan process - is to use those years to do what campaigners have never been keen to do: name the enemies of rights and identify their motives. It's time - as Cardinal George Pell is so fond of saying - to bell the cat.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/for-whom-bells-toll-20101210-18sqv.html

For those interested in pursuing the matter:

 http://www.humanrightsact.com.au