Novak Djokovic saga exposes Australia’s Covid hysteria

Novak Djokovic has returned to Serbia after having his visa to Australia cancelled. Picture: AFP.

Border protection is a serious business, as is pandemic management, but by disingenuously conflating the two, the Prime Minister has undermined his authority on both. It does Scott Morrison no credit to claim, as he did in an official statement, that the federal court’s decision not to interfere in the Immigration Minister’s cancellation of Novak Djokovic’s visa helps to “keep our borders strong and keep Australians safe”.

What rot. Djokovic was granted a visa by the federal government, and when the federal government cancelled that visa after he arrived, the tennis champion’s challenge saw the federal court support his actions and uphold his visa.

It was only then that the Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, cancelled the visa a second time arguing that Djokovic’s unvaccinated status and previous comments on the issue might undermine “health good order” in this country. In other words, he was deported for his views.

The subsequent court case merely found that the Minister’s wide discretionary powers to take such action were properly exercised. There was no finding about the merits or otherwise of the decision, it was only a process-related appeal.

There was no surprise it failed. The Minister has extraordinary powers to cancel visas.

We are entitled to expect that such authority should only be used for genuine threats to the nation. To deport someone for their views about public health issues is an outrageously undemocratic and illiberal action, and an ominous development.

For what other contentious views might visitors be expelled?

A mural depicting Novak Djokovic, his first coach Jelena Gencic (left) and his grandfather Vladimir Djokovic in Belgrade, Serbia. Picture: Getty Images.

The fact this happened to a famous repeat visitor to this nation, whose views were well known long before his visa was granted, only heightens the comically cynical nature of the call. That Djokovic is healthy, tested negative for the disease and has some natural immunity thanks to a previous Covid infection also compounds the inanity of what has transpired.

Ours is one of the world’s most vaccinated nations and yet the mild omicron variant is spreading wildly among us, thankfully with even lower levels of serious illness and death than the alpha and delta variants. We no longer have quarantine requirements for overseas arrivals.

As I wrote in these pages earlier this month, the only person put at risk by Djokovic’s failure to get the jab would be the tennis ace himself. He turned out to be a convenient scapegoat in a country where politicians and media have spent two years whipping up fear and hysteria to justify ludicrous rules and restrictions in pursuit of an impossible zero Covid strategy.

Scott Morrison has too seldom called out the overreach of the states, too seldom stuck up for the rights of people kept apart by callous state border closures and been too heartless in blocking the return of Australians to their own country during the pandemic. Now, instead of admitting their errors, confronting the consequences of their own paranoia and overbearing responses, the politicians and media imposed the same illogical and unfair treatment on Djokovic, just so they could appease antsy and noisy elements of society.

A man takes a selfie with Novak Djokovic as he arrives at Nikola Tesla Airport. Picture: Reuters.

After two years of unnecessary harm inflicted on so many Australians – from kids kept out of school to overseas residents not allowed home, and from families prevented from crossing state borders for funerals or treatments to businesses forced to shut their doors or take heavy losses – we are supposed to be mollified because the government has treated the world’s number one tennis player terribly too.

It might play well for a while. But just as good policy usually turns out to be good politics, so too do bad decisions tend to come unstuck.

Because no oppositions, state or federal, Labor or Liberal, have been prepared to properly call out the Covid carry on, the counter arguments to futile government responses are seldom heard. Instead, we have media and politicians announcing and catastrophising case numbers; pointless case numbers of mainly asymptomatic or mild illnesses.

Through the Djokovic saga, Australia’s Covid psychosis has been demonstrated, embarrassingly, to the world. Morrison has been revealed as someone prepared to play political games with visa and pandemic issues to chase populist paydirt.

But worse could follow from the precedent that has been set. Subsequent cases or exemptions might expose the double dealing and demand more logical responses.