Novak Djokovic farce proves the sad joke is on Australia

The Djokovic saga is the personification of just how confused and contradictory Australia’s Covid response has been, writes Joe Hildebrand.

Novak Djokovic’s nickname is the Joker but when it comes to the farce of his entry into Australia, the truth is the joke’s on us.

Indeed, Djokovic is the perfect personification of just how confused, contradictory and contorted our response to Covid has been for these past two years.

Just consider this one individual case alone. First, we have three different layers of bureaucracy — the federal government, Victorian government and Tennis Australia — all accused, as well as accusing each other, of screwing up.

Moreover, none of them seems to be able to explain what the screw-up actually was. Did Djokovic have the right visa but the wrong exemption? Or the wrong visa but the right exemption? Or no exemption at all?

And since when did state governments and sporting bodies think they could issue visas or exemptions in the first place? And what of the other players or visitors who were reportedly granted exemptions and apparently sailed through?

And here’s another question: How on earth did the federal and Victorian governments not see this coming?

Novak Djokovic captured as he arrived into Australia and had his visa denied. Picture: Nine News

Djokovic’s anti-vax views are a matter of global infamy and his arrival at the Australian Open was so hotly anticipated there were feverish news reports of him practising with official AO balls. Yet the final decision only came once he was face-to-face with some poor customs official at Tullamarine Airport?

Frankly the whole thing reeks of the same rank populism that has driven so much of Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. When everybody was excited about the world number one coming to reclaim a record-breaking Open crown there was seemingly a wink-and-nod understanding to wave him through. And when the inevitable backlash came it was nobody’s idea and everybody else’s fault.

Again the old cliche comes to life: Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. And nothing could be more emblematic of our response to Covid-19.

Indeed, the deadliest failure of all throughout the pandemic — the shambles of the Victorian hotel quarantine system — is the ultimate example. Who was in charge? Well, nobody really knew. Apparently it just kind of… happened. (I invite anyone to read the official report of the inquiry into the matter — and the organisational flow charts contained therein — and challenge them to find any sign of intelligent life.)

And when the outbreak ripped through nursing homes, killing hundreds, the usual federal-state bickering broke out over who was to blame. (Answer: Both — the state for letting it out and the feds for letting it in.)

Likewise the East German-esque implementation of curfews during one of the multiple Melbourne lockdowns was the idea of precisely nobody. Not the Premier, not the police, not the chief health officer. It too just kind of… happened.

And so it is little wonder that the Djokovic snafu just kind of happened as well. Who was in charge? Everyone and no one.

Police keep watch on a Hotel in Carlton where Novak Djokovic is being held. Picture: David Crosling

Novak Djokovic supporters rally outside Park Hotel where he has been detained in Melbourne. Picture: Diego Fedele/Getty Images

This is the story of Australia when it comes to handling Covid-19. Yes we have been lucky but only in the Donald Horne sense of the word — we have had good fortune in spite of our collective leadership, not because of it.

Indeed, “collective leadership” is itself the wrong term. We don’t have a single unified body making good or bad decisions as bipartisan war cabinets have traditionally done in the past.

Instead we came up with the figleaf of a “national cabinet” that made supposedly united decisions only for its members to go off and do eight different things for eight different political purposes.

The most heinous of these was the closure of schools in the three most populous states, which had no basis in scientific evidence and was against the advice of the Chief Medical Officer.

Never forget the laudable decision by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to keep schools open nor the Luddite backflip a couple of days later after the teachers’ union arced up.

Meanwhile an inquiry by the NSW Teachers Federation heard that after the first lockdown in 2020 more than 3000 children simply disappeared out of the school system in that state alone. God knows where they are now or how many have followed since.

These are the most vulnerable victims of the lockdowns and shutdowns but their fate will never be recorded in the Covid statistics and their stories will never be told. It is our great national shame.

Yet even now, after months of soothsaying about living with the virus, there is still a reactive panic in the community fuelled by a reactionary panic by commentators who somehow have the gall to call themselves progressive.

So yeah, the joke’s on us. The only problem is it’s not that funny.