‘Kick your a**e out’: Barnaby Joyce skewers Novak Djokovic

Barnaby Joyce doesn’t have much sympathy for Novak Djokovic as the tennis star tries to overturn a ruling to kick him out of Australia.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says Novak Djokovic only has himself to blame as the tennis star risks being deported over a visa controversy that erupted after he was granted a vaccination exemption.

Djokovic — a noted anti-vaxxer who has publicly opposed mandatory jabs — flew into Melbourne on Wednesday night after revealing he had received an exemption to play in the Australian Open.

Watch Tennis Live with beIN SPORTS on Kayo. Live Coverage of ATP + WTA Tour Tournaments including Every Finals Match. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial >

But his visa was rejected and the world No. 1 is being held in a Melbourne hotel as he waits to challenge the decision to boot him out of the country in court on Monday.

Mr Joyce had little sympathy for Djokovic’s situation, telling the BBC: “If he hasn’t filled out the forms appropriately then he’s taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke.

“He’s got to understand you’ve been graced by God with a certain talent but that certain talent does not rise above the sovereign rights of other nations.

“If you wander off into our country and don’t tell us the truth, we’re going to kick your a**e out of here as well.”

Speaking to Channel 7’s Sunrise on Friday morning, Mr Joyce also referred to the letter sent by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to Tennis Australia explaining that having contracted Covid-19 within the past six months was not a valid reason for a vaccination exemption.

“I woke up early and I started reading through the correspondence between Greg Hunt and Tennis Australia. I don’t think Greg could have been any clearer,” Mr Joyce said.

“He said you’ve got to be double vaxxed. You can’t just say that you’ve had Covid as a reason for you to get an exemption.

“Greg, the Minister for Health, was absolutely black-and-white clear to Mr Djokovic about what his responsibilities and the expectations were and now we’ve got this confusion.

“The Victorian Government decided they wanted Mr Djokovic in and Tennis Australia probably wanted Mr Djokovic in — but they don’t make the decision. It’s the Federal Government.”

Barnaby Joyce isn’t feeling too sorry for Novak Djokovic. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Djokovic may not be able to play in the Australian Open. (Photo by Oscar Del Pozo / AFP)

Mr Joyce likened Djokovic’s situation to when he famously gave actor Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard a 50-hour deadline to get their dogs out of Australia or hand them over to customs to be euthanised.

“When you sit back and look at it from a distance you just think, sometimes I get a sense of people who make a lot of money believing they’ve evolved somehow above the laws of the land whether you like them or not,” he said.

“We saw this with Mr Depp and I’m not saying Mr Djokovic is Mr Depp.

“You abide by the law and that’s the process. You don’t like it, change the people who make them — and I hope they don’t do that.

“The correspondence was black-and-white clear given to Tennis Australia, so they should have conveyed that on to Mr Djokovic, and then he still made a decision he was going to jump on a plane and arrive here.

“We’re not responsible for the fact that after all the information that was there, he still arrived here.

“The decision was his. He made the decision, but the advice he got was quite clear — get yourself vaccinated twice. It’s not good enough to say, ‘Well I’ve had Covid’.”

Tennis Australia has not revealed why Djokovic originally qualified for a vaccination exemption, but TA boss Craig Tiley has called on the Serbian to publicly explain why he received one.