I just found this article which is a few weeks old which has given me more actual information about Hicks than all of the Australian media combined over the last 5 years. Looks like we occasionally have to look international to get local coverage 🙁
After basically allowing Hicks to remain in Guantánamo for five years without any significant protest, the former prime minister, John Howard, came under domestic political pressure to secure his release, or at least a trial, and he made what was tantamount to such a demand on Vice President Dick Cheney when Cheney was in Australia in February. Formal charges and the plea bargain quickly followed.
It is interesting to already see Howard being reporting in this way.