Senator CHRIS EVANS (Western Australia—Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:19): I thank the senator for his question. I obviously cannot comment on unsubstantiated media reports about sealed documents that have been discovered, because, quite frankly, all of that was news to me this morning as well. But I can tell you that the Australian government is not aware of any charges by the US government against Mr Assange. Our embassy in Washington continues to closely monitor developments. Mr Assange remains in the UK, awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the UK Supreme Court regarding his possible extradition to Sweden. We continue to monitor closely Mr Assange's legal situation and have sought and received assurances from Swedish authorities that he will be accorded due process if he is extradited. While Mr Assange was detained in the UK in 2010, Australian consular officials provided him with a high level of consular support. This remains available to him, as we have advised his lawyers on a number of occasions. I understand that officials were last in contact with Mr Assange's lawyers in late January 2012. Senator Ludlam: I call a point of order, Mr President, on the direct relevance of the minister's answer. I did not refer to any of the Swedish prosecution matters or anything that is occurring in the UK. My question goes directly to whether the Australian government knows of the existence of a sealed indictment—that is just a 'yes' or a 'no'. The PRESIDENT: The minister is answering the question from what I have heard. Senator CHRIS EVANS: Mr President, I was trying to be helpful to the senator and give him what information I had, but as I said in the first part of my answer, the Australian government is not aware of any charges by the US government against Mr Assange. If that is all he wants to know, I will stop there.