WikiLeaks founder and 'people-smuggler' Julian Assange revealed to the South China Morning Post the reason why Edward Snowden fled Hong Kong for Russia two weeks after the former CIA analyst first broke cover here.

Assange, holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London as he seeks to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, said in a telephone interview that the prospect of his party entering the senate had set alarm bells ringing within Australia's political establishment.