Novak Djokovic affair sadly shows what PM Scott Morrison thinks of Aussies
The Morrison government aimed to throw tennis champion Novak Djokovic out of the country, but ended up revealing exactly what it thinks about average Aussies.
Opinion
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Ahead of yesterday’s court hearing to determine if Novak Djokovic would be allowed to remain in Australia, our government presented the real reason it sought to deport the Serbian tennis player.
It wasn’t because Djokovic’s mid-December Covid infection was insufficient grounds to grant him a medical exemption for the Australian Open.
And it wasn’t because certain immigration documents presented by Djokovic contained incorrect information.
Instead, the government argued that Djokovic must be expelled because you, the Australian public, are stupid.
Specifically, you are so stupid that your opinions and beliefs about medicine, science, Covid and vaccinations may easily be swayed by the temporary presence here of a Serbian athlete.
That, in essence, is the total argument presented by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, who more fully wrote: “Given Mr Djokovic’s high profile status and position as a role model in the sporting and broader community, his ongoing presence in Australia may foster similar disregard for the precautionary requirements following receipt of a positive Covid test in Australia.
“In particular, his behaviour may encourage or influence others to emulate his prior conduct and fail to comply with appropriate health measures following a positive test, which itself could lead to the transmission of the disease and serious risk to their health and others.”
From that, we now know that the Coalition government looks upon us as utterly witless and malleable. So much so that all of us are potentially in thrall to a solitary tennis player who, as the government evidently believes, holds some sort of nation-warping hypnotic power.
“I consider that his ongoing presence in Australia may encourage other people to disregard or act inconsistently with public health advice and policies in Australia,” Hawke continued.
“In addition, I consider that Mr Djokovic’s ongoing presence in Australia may lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment generated in the Australian community, potentially leading to an increase in civil unrest of the kind previously experienced in Australia with rallies and protests which may themselves be a source of community transmission.”
But as the Federal Court heard yesterday, Australians have continued to get vaccinated since Djokovic’s arrival. Health Minister Greg Hunt announced on the weekend that Australia had reached the 95 per cent double vaccination threshold for people aged over 16.
Unless Djokovic’s influential magic extends to removing vaccines from inoculated Australians, him being here is unlikely to make any difference to what we’ve so far done as a community or what we’ll do in the future.
Put aside, if you’re able, the extraordinarily patronising and condescending content of the government’s argument – an argument put forward, by the way, by a party that claims to champion personal responsibility – and consider how many times Hawke mentioned Djokovic’s “ongoing presence” in Australia.
He didn’t mention anything about Djokovic addressing local anti-vax rallies or lighting up social media with anti-vax rants aimed at an Australian audience. That’s because Djokovic hasn’t done any such things.
All Djokovic has done is spend some time in a Carlton hotel in between a few practice sessions. Yet the government, through its Immigration Minister, plainly considers even his mute physical appearance to be a threat.
More precisely, the government believes that presence will inflame you – Australia’s infantile and slobbering rubes. Why, then, didn’t the government intervene to protect us after Djokovic revealed certain other of his unconventional views?
In 2020, for example, Djokovic declared during an Instagram chat that “gratitude” can purify toxic food and water.
“I know some people that, through energetical transformation, through the power of prayer, through the power of gratitude, they managed to turn the most toxic food, or maybe most polluted water into the most healing water, because water reacts,” the tennis star claimed.
“Scientists have proven that in experiment, that molecules in the water react to our emotions to what has been said.”
None of that is true, and Australians will not be persuaded otherwise simply because of the speaker’s identity. None of us are deploying gratitude to render rancid old ham edible, or using emotion to clean the pool.
Some may argue that Djokovic’s views on vaccination are more crucial than his water theories, due to the broader health aspect. But what does it matter when we’re already vaxxed to the max?
Not that Djokovic has said anything of note since arriving in Australia, but let him say what he wants. People say crazy things all the time. And we’re free to examine those statements, and to mock or ignore them.
Tim Flannery, for example, said Sydney’s dams might never refill. Cate Blanchett said artists can change gravity. Bruce Pascoe says he’s Aboriginal.
And Immigration Minister Alex Hawke says Australia risks “civil unrest” unless we throw a tennis player out of the country, which may be even more ridiculous than Djokovic’s beliefs about sentient water.
It is certainly far more insulting. Regardless of the court’s unanimous decision yesterday to deport Djokovic, Australians should not forget just how negatively we are viewed by this government.
We are viewed as incompetent.
This case has evolved from a bid to deport a tennis player to an attack by the Morrison government on the Australian character. As Djokovic himself might put it, this has truly been something of an “energetical transformation”.
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