Novak Djokovic won a court battle to stay in Australia to contest the Australian Open despite not being vaccinated against COVID-19, but the drama might not be finished, with the government threatening to cancel his visa a second time and deport him.
The reversal, in the wake of the outcry, led some to suspect politics were at play, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government seeking re-election for a fourth term in polls due by May.
“The Minister’s ‘personal powers to cancel visas’ are designed to prevent criminals otherwise walking our streets, or to prevent a contagious person otherwise walking our streets; they’re not designed to assist in dealing with a potential political problem of the day,” Alexander, who is in Morrison’s conservative Liberal Party but is retiring, posted on social media.
Judge Kelly noted that Djokovic had provided officials at Melbourne’s airport with a medical exemption given him by Tennis Australia and two medical panels. But in the end, the government lawyers eventually conceded that the decision to proceed with interviewing Djokovic in the early hours of Thursday and cancel his visa before he could contact Tennis Australia or his lawyers was unreasonable.
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