Djokovic v Australia
World renowned tennis player Novak Djokovic was heading for Australia to play in the 2022 Australian Open. A requirement to be granted a visa to Australia is that travellers are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, otherwise they have to be quarantined for 14 days. However, Djokovic has not received the vaccine and had reportedly been granted a visa on the basis of a ‘medical exemption’ issued by Tennis Australia (the organisers of the 2022 Australian Open) and the State of Victoria where the Australian Open is to be held in.[1] When it had first been announced that Djokovic had been issued a visa, this ignited backlash among Australians who were still under tight COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.[2] Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison initially stated that he would respect the decision of the Victorian government but later back-pedalled and said that the final decision-making power would lie with the federal government.
Upon entry into Australia, Djokovic’s visa was revoked by Australian border control at the airport and he was held there, then later transferred to a hotel used for immigration detention.
Following this initial revoking of Djokovic’s visa, he appealed the decision in court. Djokovic argued that the decision was wrong on the grounds of procedural fairness and legal unreasonableness as the immigration authority did not accept Djokovic’s request to wait until 8:30am local time so that he could contact his lawyers and Tennis Australia and instead revoked his visa immediately.[3] The court held in Djokovic’s favour that he was not allowed fair opportunity to respond and quashed the decision to revoke his visa. However, following this decision, the Australian Minister of Immigration used discretionary powers to revoke Djokovic’s visa once more on “health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so”.[4] This was once again challenged by Djokovic but at the Federal Court level, there was a unanimous decision to uphold the Minister’s decision (the full reasoning has not been released yet at the time of writing) and Djokovic was ultimately deported.[5]
This saga demonstrated the conflict between the state and federal government in Australia. Particularly with the Australian election coming up in May, the federal government had to ‘do the right thing’ and respond to public criticism that it allowed Djokovic and other public figures to be above the law. However, the government’s decision has resulted in strained ties with Serbia, which has publicly condemned Australia’s treatment of Djokovic. It could be argued that the Australian government should have nipped the issue in the bud in the first place instead of allowing the matter to have escalated to this level.
[1] BBC, ‘Novak Djokovic: Australia cancels top tennis player's visa’ < https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59889522> Accessed 19 January 2022
[2] BBC, ‘Novak Djokovic: Australian Open vaccine exemption ignites backlash’ < https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59876203> Accessed 19 January 2022
[3] BBC, ‘Novak Djokovic: The twists and turns of his Australia mess’ <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59890943> Accessed 19 January 2022
[4] New York Times, ‘Novak Djokovic’s Visa Is Canceled Again by Australia’ < https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/14/sports/novak-djokovic-australia> Accessed 19 January 2022
[5] The Guardian, ‘Novak Djokovic leaves Australia after court upholds visa cancellation’ <https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/16/novak-djokovic-to-be-deported-from-australia-after-losing-appeal-against-visa-cancellation> Accessed 19 January 2022
