Assange release eases friction in Australia-US ties

The liberation of Julian Assange removes a source of friction from Australia's relationships with the US and the UK while setting the stage for stronger ties, an expert on geopolitics says.

The WikiLeaks founder had spent 14 years dodging US authorities after leaking troves of secret state information.

On Wednesday night Assange set foot in Australia for the first time in more than a decade, after securing his freedom by pleading guilty to espionage.

The opposition has claimed the prime minister's decision to welcome him home could imperil Australia's relationship with one of its strongest allies.

But the president and founder of geopolitical risk advisory Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, said the release of Assange helped restore equanimity to ties with the US, as well as with the UK where he was incarcerated.

"The Australians have been lobbying for a deal to avoid US imprisonment for a while," Dr Bremmer told AAP.

"The downside of increased friction in the US-Australian-UK relationship, especially with AUKUS, outweighed the upside of continuing prosecution against a guy who had been in captivity for 12 years."

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said, if anything, ties have only improved.

"The bilateral relationship between Canberra and Washington is as strong as it's ever been and it is getting stronger," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"However, for some time now the incarceration of Julian Assange was a thorn in the side of that relationship.

"I now see reason to be very optimistic about the bilateral relationship, that thorn has been pulled out."

Assange is still a convicted criminal, but his US lawyer Barry Pollack has called on US President Joe Biden to pardon him.

"President Biden or any subsequent president absolutely can, and in my mind should, issue a pardon to Julian Assange," he said.

"Obviously he's just been released, he's just gotten home, I suspect that will take some time."

The outcome arose from years of diplomacy and the government was pleased Assange had returned, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said.

"This Australian citizen was involved in a matter that had dragged on too long - our view as a government was that there was nothing to be served by him continuing to be incarcerated," she told reporters.

The foreign minister also met with his wife Stella Assange in parliament's press gallery on Thursday morning and wished the family well.

While politicians across all parties are relieved Assange's pursuit has come to an end, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the WikiLeaks founder should not be lauded.

"It is completely unnecessary and totally inappropriate for Julian Assange to be greeted like some homecoming hero by the Australian prime minister," he told ABC Radio.

"He should not be feted and he should not be held up in the same type of stature ... as those Australians who have been truthfully, truly wrongfully detained."

He questioned whether Assange could be labelled a journalist and said his work was not "an act of heroism".

Assange's wife is appealing for donations after revealing he will owe the Australian government $US520,000 ($A783,000) for the charter flight.

The fundraiser has already reached almost 80 per cent of its target.