In the end, the Australian rules also appear to apply to Novak Djokovic

The soap opera surrounding the arrival of the unvaccinated Novak Djokovic to Australia has come to an end after two weeks full of unexpected plot twists. In an appeal against Australian immigration minister Alex Hawke’s decision to revoke the Serb’s visa, the federal court unanimously ruled in favor of the Australian government on Sunday. The Serbian tennis player has to leave the country and bears the legal costs.

It is the conclusion of a theatrical play that has been occupying Australia and the world for the past few weeks. Djokovic will no longer appeal the ruling. In a response, he says he is “extremely disappointed”, but that he respects the ruling and is cooperating with his deportation: Djokovic is already on the plane on Sunday evening Australian time (early afternoon, Dutch time), on his way to Dubai.

Immigration Secretary Alex Hawke has embraced the decision. “Border policy is fundamental to protecting social cohesion in Australia,” he says. “Border policies have kept us safe during the pandemic, giving us one of the lowest death rates, the strong economic recovery and high vaccination coverage.”

Federal Court

More than 86,000 people joined the federal court’s YouTube channel on Sunday to follow the case. Fans of the nine-time Australian Open winner gathered in Melbourne court armed with Serbian flags. The announcement of the schedule for the Australian Open was long delayed. While other tournament participants emphasized that the Australian Open is bigger and more important than one person, the chaos surrounding Djokovic has had a major impact on the event. In the end, the Serb was assigned to play for the first time at the tournament on Monday evening.

Although the last few weeks have mainly been about the medical exemption that Novak Djokovic had received so that he could come to Australia unvaccinated, there was another argument in the three-member court on Sunday. Immigration Secretary Hawke had used his personal authority to revoke the Serb’s visa because he would stir “anti-vax sentiments”. In a statement, Hawke said he acted on “grounds of health and good order.”

Djokovic’s lawyers naturally disagreed. It was precisely the cancellation of the visa that caused all the fuss and the demonstrative statements of support for the tennis player by his fans and anti-vaccination groups, his lawyer Nick Wood said.

However, the court stated that it is not the role of judges to give a value judgment on the minister’s decision. The judges only determine whether the minister has acted within his competence.

Exception

Although the pressure to resolve this matter before the grand slam tournament starts on Monday was mounting, the Djokovic case was no longer just about tennis. Australians have little understanding for granting an exception to Novak Djokovic, while they themselves have been dealing with very strict corona policy for more than two years. In a recent poll commissioned by The Age newspaper, 71 percent of those polled said the 34-year-old tennis star should leave the country. The hashtag #DjokovicOut has been trending on Twitter in Australia for days.

Melbourne, the city where the Australian Open is held, has been in lockdown for the longest time worldwide since the start of the pandemic: 262 days. For more than a year and a half, Australia’s borders were virtually closed, even to its own citizens. Allowing the unvaccinated tennis player undermines all this sacrifice, many Australians believe. To them, Djokovic has become the embodiment of the idea that rules don’t apply to the rich and powerful.

Morrison felt that outrage and said last week: “Rules are rules, especially when it comes to our boundaries.” On Friday evening, he added: “Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic and they rightly expect the outcome of those sacrifices to be protected.”

unscathed

Yet the Australian government is not coming out of this unscathed. For example, it is still not clear why Djokovic got a visa in the first place, while the rules were so clear. The government also failed to impress by initially shifting responsibility to the local state government. The opposition’s criticism is therefore not tender. “Morrison is a laughing stock on the world stage,” said Labor Party immigration spokesman Kristina Keneally. She supported the court’s decision but criticized the government’s handling of the case. “The government knew that Djokovic came to Australia while he was not vaccinated and that it was a controversial case. This is an example of failed leadership.”

In addition, the Australian government’s actions are jeopardizing diplomatic relations with Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic pointed to the sore spot on Saturday when he asked his Australian counterpart why Djokovic, his country’s national pride, is being treated so disrespectfully. “Is this really necessary to win elections and please your supporters?” the president asked in a video on his Instagram account.

frustration

After all, the Australian government has something to make up for with the people. The frustration among Australians is not just about the visa of one tennis player. Since the government of Scott Morrison decided that Australians must ‘learn to live’ with the virus, almost all measures have been dropped. From a few dozen infections per day, there are now many tens of thousands of infections per day, driven by the Omikron variant of the coronavirus. This is despite the high vaccination rate of 92 percent.

The government had promised that if people were vaccinated, life could go back to the ‘old normal’. But that is by no means the case. There are still hours of queues for PCR tests, self-tests are sold out almost everywhere and government financial support has been phased out, while infected people are forced to sit at home. The hospitals are full. After almost two years of ‘zero covid’ policy, it feels for Australians as if all the heavy measures have been for nothing. The fact that a world-famous tennis player was allowed into the country unvaccinated was the last straw for many people.

That is why the Australian government went back to one of the foundations of its policy: strict border policies. Prime Minister Scott Morrison reiterated on Sunday that “strong borders are fundamental to the Australian way of life.” Although Australia has come under a lot of criticism internationally, border policy has been a safe political haven for his government for years.

Australia refuses to take in refugees who landed on their own or with the help of people smugglers. As a former immigration minister, Prime Minister Morrison played an important role in setting the hard-line policy. And he is still proud of that. For a long time there was even a small model boat on his desk with ‘I stopped these’ written in thick black letters.

Although the hard border policy usually works in the political favor of his conservative government, it is now also attracting a lot of criticism. Nevertheless, Djokovic’s stay in the detention hotel in Melbourne has also drawn attention to the asylum seekers, who have sometimes been held there for years in poor conditions.

The Australian government has finally settled the Djokovic issue in its favor. But it could be a long time before the Morrison administration has repaired the damage at home and abroad.

Read here an extensive profile of Novak Djokovic

Read also this article about unvaccinated elite athletes

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