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activist Gail Malone gave the speech below at a July 16 rally in Sydney.

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WikiLeaks is a gift to history. We now have, for the first time, the ability to write history not only through the eyes of the victors. WikiLeaks has become a leveler between people and government. They have ushered in an age where we, the people, have access to information once deemed for their eyes only.

For years Australia has wantonly participated in brutal, unnecessary wars in the name of freedom and democracy, as successive governments can’t seem to say no to the US. Thanks to the courageous work of WikiLeaks we have an in depth resource enabling us to put these wars into perspective and make informed decisions as to whether, we the Australian people, think our involvement is wise and in our national interest. Both the Afghan and Iraq War releases tell a different story than our government and the mainstream media would have us believe. It is becoming more apparent that the government’s idea of the national interest is in conflict with our own.

We have learned that the dire situation that people seeking asylum go through suits certain members in parliament. WikiLeaks US embassy cables revealed the true agenda that lurks beneath the “stop the boats” rhetoric.

We know that a five country cartel of Australia, US, Canada, South Africa and Switzerland have joined forces to promote mining interests at the expense of indigenous people and their land.

We learned from the Stratfor emails release that our government is just a bit too chummy with the US and [we learned] which ministers were communicating with the US in a manner some would regard as treason and or spying. We learned the once “faceless men” of the Labor Party felt Julia Gillard would be more pragmatic as a Prime Minister than Rudd. We learned that our government was happy to serve Julian Assange to the US regardless of his innocence or his Australian citizenship. We have learned, and this cannot be disputed, that our government is sycophantic in the extreme towards the US and we are hardly more than a client state, with a government lacking the maturity to think for themselves, regardless of what the Australian people want.

We have only recently started to see the latest WikiLeaks release, “The Syria Files”. The release not only allows us to see the machinations of big business and governments regarding Syria but it is, like the previous releases, are a remarkable resource for education and training. These things are a gift to history from WikiLeaks.

We, here today are in the eye of a storm in history, Australia should be proud of WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange, in the fight not only for freedom of speech but freedom generally. We need to give backing to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

Our government has tried ignoring us. We have written, called, emailed our MPs and Senators, often having to inform them of irregularities of the case. We have to get facts out. Our numbers are growing and dictate how long they can ignore us; we must continue to talk to others and inform them, take to the streets as we have today, ad nauseum.

You can sign up for the mailing list to keep abreast of actions, all the information you need is on the flyers circulating. Our government must know we are not willing to lose such an important Australian to their career whims. or donating at ‘wikileaksbeattheblockade’ site. There is also an array of quality merchandising from wikileaks.org, or you can throw some coins in the buckets here today, or purchase a badge.

It is an expensive business fighting bogus charges and an unfair financial blockade, and managing the most prolific media outlet the world has ever seen. Although there was a win in Iceland regarding Visa they are appealing. Keep WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in your hearts; help them, help us to leave a free world for future generations.

Last month Senator Ludlam moved that the prejudicial statements made by senior government members be retracted, with the backing of the Coalition. I asked Senator Ludlam on twitter “is there a time frame for Gillard et al to retract the prejudicial statements regarding the Julian Assange and Wikileaks?” He replied; “well, I think their timeframe is 'never'.” So, your homework can be to start writing, telling the Prime Minister, the Attorneys General, as [Robert] McClelland and [Nicola] Roxon have been involved, and the foreign minister to honour this motion and demand that they protect Julian Assange.

As history is written by the victors, this is a battle we cannot afford to lose. Let truth be victorious.