Top lawyer says decision on Novak Djokovic’s visa must be made on Thursday

A top lawyer has warned that the federal government must make a decision on Novak Djokovic’s visa today or risk things getting even uglier.

The federal government must make a decision on whether to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa today or risk “legally hamstringing” the tennis ace, a migration expert warned.

If Immigration Minister Alex Hawke makes his deportation call any later than today, migration lawyer Kian Bone said the Serbian would likely be stuck in detention for the Australian Open.

“The longer they sit on it, the more controversial the decision will be,” the principal lawyer from Macpherson Kelley said.

That was because it would be “difficult” to get a court outcome by the tournament’s Monday launch.

“From a legal perspective, you’d be legally hamstringing Novak Djokovic,” Mr Bone said.

Despite the legal implications for the world No.1, there was no limit on when the Minister could make a personal power decision to suddenly cancel his visa.

But Mr Bone said it would be “pretty brave” of Mr Hawke to made the call after the Open commenced.

Asked why it was taking the government so long to make a call, the accredited specialist in migration law — among just 40 in Victoria — said the “cynic’s view” would be that pushing it out prevents Djokovic from playing because it could be too late to get before a judge.

Novak Djokovic could still have his visa challenged by the government. Picture: Getty Images.

Or, authorities could be spooked into ensuring they had a bulletproof position in the wake of Monday’s crushing loss, where their decision to cancel the 34-year-old’s visa was quashed.

Mr Bone labelled a lie by Djokovic on his entry form that he hadn’t travelled in the 14 days before arriving in Australia as a “red herring”.

The travel declaration requirement — which only came in force in the past month due to the pandemic — was geared towards strict requirements on travel bubbles with countries like Japan and South Korea,

Mr Bone said after Djokovic released a statement on Wednesday admitting to the “human error”, his legal team “cut off a pathway of attack” by the minister.

“I think Djokovic has done the right thing getting on the front foot admitting as a mistake ... they’ve given themselves an extra 24 hours.”

It’s understood the government was scrambling to trawl through a pile of fresh documents handed over by Djokovic’s team after he admitted to ticking the wrong box on his entry form.

If the government chose to cancel Djokovic’s visa again, Mr Bone believed it would be through Mr Hawke’s personal powers, rather than over the tennis star’s entry form lie.

“Legally the decision of the minister would be harder to challenge — there’s less grounds of review because natural justice and procedural fairness doesn’t apply,” he said.

And if Djokovic was detained again, Mr Bone said he “struggled to see” how he would be allowed out to play tennis.

“It’s unlikely such a high profile non-citizen could be out in the community while the court proceedings were ongoing,” he said.