Australian Government Wants Novak Djokovic Out

The no-vaxxers argue that Novak poses no threat to the vaccinated people and other players. Scientifically that may be true. But for me it is not the science but Novak’s lying that is at the core here. He lied on the form, he lied about social distancing, and frankly that whole testing positive thing in December smacks of tailored convenience to help a “messiah” sneak in through the back door.
While there is enough blame to pass around, I am afraid Novak brought this sordid and senseless drama upon himself.

January 14th, 2022 at 11:50 am

One could think it’s the opposite of the government’s claim that Djoker’s exemption, if again approved, would incite the vaxxed, not the unvaxxed.
The vaxxed have been crying for the unvaxxed to be further ostracized and even refused medical treatment if sick and Quebec’s premier in Canada, wants a large financial penalty for the unvaxxed.
The politicians have lost their minds and don’t know who to blame anymore, but of course most of them don’t want to mention the cause of the pandemic, namely China.
My 3 cents worth (inflation, eh?)

January 14th, 2022 at 1:34 pm

Any chance of seeing some threads about the AO, and talk on that now purrrlease

January 14th, 2022 at 2:54 pm

Sorry Alison, this thing seems to go far beyond the tennis..

Feeling like I am going against the tide here, in a bad way. I feel like someone like Graham Is going to get it sideways when I say that all in all this whole circus is petty in the way Djokovic has been targeted. Djokovic is being stopped from working his profession. Say wath you want about the guy but his career can be defined as artitstry, excellence in his own field on the verge of culminating into something that could maybe not be surpassed in a hundred years. Like maybe there was an unknown genious that would have painted the sistine chapel, but he was sidelined because he had the flu so Michelangelo got the gig.

One part of humanity is about striving for something that has not been done before. May it be striving for the moon, finding a new continent(?!) or make the finest handcraft or whatever your profession is. That is how culture, standard of living develop. By individuals who are ready to sacrify, work their asses of to be the best they can be.

Djokovic is this kind of a person, and being it in a profession that is one of the most competitive on the planet makes it even more extraordinary. A farmer might try to plow the straightest (row?) ever plowed, but when he succeeds, he wont have 10 000 humans watching.

And descendants of colonists wants to kick him out of the country? It is not only their loss but Djokovic own personal loss. For us others it is only a debate. You cannot seriously say that one person might wreck the pandemic balance in a country. Putting him in a facility with untreated covid? Nice one, instead of giving him a pass, acknowledging his historical achievement knowing that he do not feel taking the vaccine is the right thing to do. Easy to say afterwards, but that would have been appropriate, fair (in the way that Djokovic, even more than Nadal in Australia, is one of two individuals that are in a uniqe position to make history, plus Djokovic cannot help the tournament being held in Australia) and saved time and Australian taxpayers money.

January 14th, 2022 at 3:14 pm

January 14th, 2022 at 3:32 pm

Chico

I admire your steadfast support of Novax but the bottom line here is that this has zilch to do with tennis. From day one Djokovic has disrespected everything that Covid brought with it. When thousands were dying, he organised a tournament back home. A weak and grovelling apology quickly followed. He is anti-Covid, he is anti-vax, anti-rules, anti-truth, anti- everything. He has no shame. A disrespectful and ignorant human being.
Is he a great player? Of course he is but, to be honest, if he were to go on and claim 40 GS titles, it would make no difference as far as I’m concerned.
I’m afraid that’s just me.
Cheers

January 14th, 2022 at 4:07 pm

Chico I haven’t actually said anything about the whole vaccine saga, as I actually have problems of my own at the moment, my husband having a stroke, I don’t come here and blog too often anymore, what I come here for is the sport of tennis, a bit of excapism, from this crazy world we live in, guess I’ve come to the wrong place over and out, its all yourd

January 14th, 2022 at 4:08 pm

Hi Al!…So sorry to hear bout Clive!..Hope he will recover as soon as possible k?..Sending love & positive thoughts to u both from a far away land!

January 14th, 2022 at 9:18 pm

Thanks Andi Mira, your cheery posts always brighten my day, hugs to you my friend xx

January 15th, 2022 at 1:09 am

My whole opinion on the situation is why should djokovic be allowed to stay without the vaccine. I agree with the Australian government to enter as all other countries are with the same rules. So why should djokovic have special properties.

January 15th, 2022 at 3:10 am

No Alison you got it wrong, I understand you perfectly and you got my sympaties, the topic was though maybe on this saga.

This is a tricky situation for everybody and there is different ways of coping with it.

Graham, I’m sorry for your losses and it makes it easy to understand what you write. I too think this situation goes beyond tennis and that is what I tried to communicate in my post.

All actions that are done to prevent this virus from spreading have an opportunity cost, that money could have eg been more focused towards the really potentially risky groups; the elderly, permanently ill, whatever there statistically is. Social services that work with the proven logic of prevention is better, or cheaper than cure, are loosing massive funding and nobody knows what that is going to cost in the future. In money or human suffering.

I am not saying Novaks stance to take care of things is the best, but I can understand it coming from someone who has grown up in an environment such as he. That he might think that whatever happens you should try to enjoy life where you can, do not coop up, we are a social species. And I say it again, his treatment just seems unfair all things considered.

January 15th, 2022 at 4:26 am

Interesting opinion by very qualified person:
———
Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns SC, a barrister experienced in migration cases, said Djokovic was now feeling the full force of migration laws designed to remove suspected terrorists from Australia, not tennis players.

“One of the most dangerous aspects of the Djokovic matter is the preparedness of the federal government to deem someone to be a risk to public order simply on the basis of what it perceives that person’s views might be,” Mr Barns said.

“This is Orwellian and it is deeply troubling in a society supposedly committed to freedom of speech and freedom of thought.”
—————-

January 15th, 2022 at 5:37 am

Chico

No hard feelings.

……..you should try and respect your fellow man and adhere to guidelines and principles that will benefit us all.

I don’t see this with Mr Djokovic. That’s the crux of the matter.

January 15th, 2022 at 5:57 am

NK,
You’re wrong. Djokovic didn’t lie about how many countries he visied in the past 14 days – and that is clear from the fact that he was asked the question twice – once on the online form, which he said was completed by his agent, and one directly in Gubai as he was boarding the plane. When asked directly by the officials, he answered YES, he had been in more than one country in the past 14 days, whereas the form answered that question as NO. He said it was a mistake by the agent on the form, which he didn’t check properly, and the agent has confirmed that it was a mistake. When you consider that there was no benefit to be gained by giving a false answer, the courts would be hard pushed to explain that as a deliberate lie. In his “assessment”, the minister skims over the importance of these 14 days answer, says it’s unimportant, but the evidence is there – in the pack of documentation provided on the Court website. The document you want is the one which has Dubai on top, and references the flight, read the text, it’s clear that when asked directly, Djokovic personally answered the question correctly.

The court documentation and evidence can be found here, on the Official Federal court website.
https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/djokovic

You accuse him of lying about social distancing, but that’s not true either. The French reporter to whom Djokovic gave the interview said what happened, that one takes some searching and google-translating, but you can find it:- the reporter said that Djokovic wore a mask throughout the interview, sat across him at a table, which was 1 m wide, refused to take the mask off when requested, and only took the mask off for the actual photoshoot, when he was clearly several meters away from the photographer. The reporter also said that the instructions before the interview were that no questions should be asked about vaccinations or whether he will travel to AO. I agree completely, knowing that he was positive, he shouldn’t have rescheduled that interview, as he did with all his other appointments except that one. That was clearly wrong, despite the fact that he said he was feeling fine at the time, and the precautions, e.g. refusing to take off the mask. But that was no Djokovic’s call to make.

You’re implying that the Test result certificate was fraudulent, another clear lie, because Djokovic wasn’t tested on some private doctor’s lab, the result comes from the official Government Public Health agency, and they have issued Djokovic with a statement that the test result was genuine, and that their PCR machines are very accurate. A certain tennis commentator (initials BR), who has a track record of doggedly publishing anything negative he can find (or make up) about Djokovic, is probably the one responsible for stirring up this story. He’s published a lot of accusations, but his objective is never to find the truth of the matter, he never looks for facts which exonerate Djokovic, he only looks for facts which might condemn him. Here’s proof of that:-
> BR published a tweet stating that Djokovic lied on his pre-Entry form, someone responded to him, telling him that when asked the same question in Dubai before bording, Djokovic himself gave the correct answer, and he provided an image of the document which prooves it. What did BR do? Nothing. He didn’t withdraw or correct his tweet. He just lost interest.

Has BR withdrawn the accusation that Djokovic falsified his Positive test result, now that he knows better? No, he hasn’t. In fact, along with the much of the mainsteam media, all these journalists publish comments and articles along the lines of “questions Djokovic needs to answer”, but when the answers are known, they fail to update their articles, they don’t tell us the actual answers which overturn the original implied accusations, so we never find out through the mainstream media that the original suspicions were unfounded, they deliberately choose to leave us all with the wrong impression.

Have these mainstream media ever posed the same questions about the actions of the Australian Government? No – there are no articles along the lines of “The questions that Australian Government need to answer”, and oh boy, so many of those questions are absolutely valid and still unanswered.

I suggest that you learn one basic fact – and that is that the media lies through their teeth if it fits in with their narrative and prejudices and sells their papers, or gets them clicks. You need to view every report with healthy scepticism until evidence comes out.

Unlike Courts, the media can choose their facts selectively, and almost always do. Usually, small local papers and Financial press (where there’s an interest NOT to mislead their readership) are better at giving the whole story, unless they are citing press agencies, like Reuters and Associated press, who generally just provide single facts at a time, without analysis. There is no “on the other hand” comments with the mainstream media. They pick a stance and go with it, ignoring anything which doesn’t fit their narrative.

The Courts apply the principles of natural justice, as Judge Kelly demonstrated. But this court case will be different, because the Minister chose the one option under which to use his executive personal power to deport Djokovic, which deliberately excludes the possibility that natural justice principles may be applied. He chose the one law which allows him to deport Djokovic no matter how unjust that might be, and the Court will have no power to stop him on the grounds that it is unjust. He could have chosen other options – and there are options where the minister could use his personal executive power to deport Djokovic, but where natural justice considerations DO apply, and the court is allowed to weigh them up.

Just that fact alone proves that the minister knows his decision to deport is unjust. Have you seen any mainstream media which report that fact? I doubt it, I haven’t found them.

Djokovic will go down in history as one of the greatest ever tennis players in history, if not the greatest, but will also feature very prominently in the Australian Law, as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever in Australian history. The judgement in this case will set a precedent which will affect the future cases, and it goes way beyond Djokovic, Tennis Australia, International sports, the unsavoury practices of Australia Border Force, the inconsistencies in vaccination rules, immigration laws, and the power of ministers. It goes to the core of what kind of a state Australia is.

January 15th, 2022 at 10:28 am

“ DJOKOVIC will go down in history as one of the greatest ever players in history …… “ says Pom Pom. How about adding to that “ the greatest ever liars”? His lies have been proven!

January 15th, 2022 at 11:08 am

”as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever in Australian history”

Ok lets calm down here with the hyperbole.

January 15th, 2022 at 11:12 am

Its BR’s fault, mainstream medias fault, the agents fault, the form’s fault, Border Force fault, and the 90% + vaccinated Australias’ fault. Djoker did not bring all this on himself did he? No way.

January 15th, 2022 at 11:23 am

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/novak-djokovic-s-arrogance-was-his-downfall Pom Pom

January 15th, 2022 at 11:32 am

If there is to be a final word, if Djokovic is deported, Nadal has a good one.

“It’s very clear that Novak Djokovic is one of the best players [in] history, without a doubt. But there is no one player in history that’s more important than an event, no?” Nadal told press.

“[The] Australian Open is much more important than any player. If he’s playing finally, okay. If he’s not playing, the Australian Open will be [a] great Australian Open with or without him.”

“I wish him all the best,” he added. “I really respect him, even if I am not agree with a lot of things that he did the last couple of weeks.”

==================
Novak may see Nadal surpass him in Masters and Slams if Djokovic embraces anti-vaxxerhood the way he embraced Pepe, drawing big hearts, started his cringeworthy boob tossing. It could be years! Even early retirement so he can ditch tennis and go to where his heart is – ALT Medicine.
Novak will lose a ton of points and likely his #1 Ranking much sooner than people predicted.

January 15th, 2022 at 12:06 pm

Whether one believes one has the right to a personal choice with regard to vaccination or not, I like these two lines from Steve Tignor’s article in Tennis.com:
“I also wonder where we would be if everyone in the world made the same “personal choice” not to be vaccinated that Djokovic has. Would there still be Grand Slam tournaments for him to play, fans in the stands to watch him, sponsors to pay him, records for him to break?”
We are where we are today with the pandemic because collectively much of the human race made the sacrifices in 2019 and 2020 in terms of vaccinating, wearing masks and social distancing. We are still making those sacrifices. Djokovic has made none of these sacrifices but wants to play for the sole reason of overtaking Federer and Nadal. Nobody is asking him not to play. His only requirement is to compromise on personal belief and get vaccinated, just like Tsitsipas has done. He is playing because he went against his personal stance and got vaccinated.
Last year at the same AO, Federer chose not to participate because he did not want to be away from his family for two weeks per AO rules. No drama, no fuss.
Steve Tignor’s line says it best. Where would the world be today if none of us did the sacrifices we did in the VM last two years. The mark of a true champion is to obey the rules. If one cannot go that one cannot okay. Period. Federer did it the classy way in 2021 by not playing at the AO. Novak could have done the same but he chose to create drama and play the victim card.
Nobody is above rules. As Nadal said, AO will be great with or without Djokovic.

January 15th, 2022 at 1:04 pm

Is this another lie?
Is the goose finally cooked?

Serbian health official disputes Djokovic’s claim of when he got his Covid-19 PCR test results:

https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/novak-djokovic-australia-visa-ruling-01-14-22/h_e0d1e5abe4dec7bb24df7a096d64b172

January 15th, 2022 at 1:26 pm

Whether one believes one has the right to a personal choice with regard to vaccination or not, I like these two lines from Steve Tignor’s article in Tennis.com:
“I also wonder where we would be if everyone in the world made the same “personal choice” not to be vaccinated that Djokovic has. Would there still be Grand Slam tournaments for him to play, fans in the stands to watch him, sponsors to pay him, records for him to break?”
We are where we are today with the pandemic because collectively much of the human race made the sacrifices in 2019 and 2020 in terms of vaccinating, wearing masks and social distancing. We are still making those sacrifices. Djokovic has made none of these sacrifices but wants to play for the sole reason of overtaking Federer and Nadal. Nobody is asking him not to play. His only requirement is to compromise on personal belief and get vaccinated, just like Tsitsipas has done. He is playing because he went against his personal stance and got vaccinated.
Last year at the same AO, Federer chose not to participate because he did not want to be away from his family for two weeks per AO rules. No drama, no fuss.
Steve Tignor’s line says it best. Where would the world be today if none of us did the sacrifices we did in the VM last two years. The mark of a true champion is to obey the rules. If one cannot go that one cannot okay. Period. Federer did it the classy way in 2021 by not playing at the AO. Novak could have done the same but he chose to create drama and play the victim card.
Nobody is above rules. As Nadal said, AO will be great with or without Djokovic. Thanks

January 15th, 2022 at 1:27 pm

Whether one believes one has the right to a personal choice with regard to vaccination or not, I like these two lines from Steve Tignor’s article in Tennis.com:
“I also wonder where we would be if everyone in the world made the same “personal choice” not to be vaccinated that Djokovic has. Would there still be Grand Slam tournaments for him to play, fans in the stands to watch him, sponsors to pay him, records for him to break?”
We are where we are today with the pandemic because collectively much of the human race made the sacrifices in 2019 and 2020 in terms of vaccinating, wearing masks and social distancing. We are still making those sacrifices. Djokovic has made none of these sacrifices. Zero. Nadal. Zilch. But he wants to be at the receiving end of a huge potential — and may I add personal — reward— in the form of 21st grand slam title. Nobody is asking him not to play. His only requirement is to get vaccinated, just like Tsitsipas has done. He is playing because he went against his personal stance and got himself vaccinated.
Last year at the AO, Federer chose not to participate because he did not want to be away from his family for two weeks per AO rules. No drama, no fuss.
Steve Tignor’s line says it best. Where would the world be today if none of us did the sacrifices we did in the VM last two years. The mark of a true champion is to obey the rules. If one cannot do that one cannot play. Period. Federer did it the classy way in 2021 by not playing at the AO. Novak could have done the same but he chose to create drama and worse play the victim card.
Nobody is above rules. As Nadal said, AO will be great with or without Djokovic. Thanks

January 15th, 2022 at 1:37 pm

Who better to fill out a form than the actual person making the application??? I don’t think I would have admitted that my agent or whoever filled out the paperwork. That in itself is a screw up imho…..just saying……

January 15th, 2022 at 1:43 pm

Who better to fill out a form than the actual person making the application??? I don’t think I would have admitted that my agent or whoever filled out “my” paperwork. That in itself is a screw up imho…..just saying……

January 15th, 2022 at 1:45 pm

Sorry I got my post in three times. For some reason I thought it was not going through.
Sincere apologies. Disregard the first two posts.

January 15th, 2022 at 1:47 pm

But NK, the 1st two posts were better than your third!

January 15th, 2022 at 2:37 pm

Djokovic doesn’t eat sugar, meat, gluten etc. He starts his day with celery juice and yoga session.

I also wonder where we would be if everyone in the world made the same “personal choice” as Djokovic has.

Eating fast food and taking a jab is hardly a reason for self-righteous virtue signaling.

January 15th, 2022 at 2:45 pm

Milos, with due respect, I think your analogy is as lame and sad as an analogy can be.
What you choose to eat does not put any other person at risk. A global pandemic is something else. If every person on earth chose not to get vaccinated from when the pandemic started, I can safely say a few more million people have succumbed to the pandemic. If you truly believe the collective effort of crores of people from all over the world did not have any alleviating effect at all on the pandemic, all I can say is that you are entitled to your opinion but not to your own facts.
I am not anti-Novak, but as Nadal said he made a decision, and now he has to face the consequences. My problem is not with Novak’s anti-vaccine stance, I think it is sad that he has done zilch personally in the last two years by way of preventing further spread of the disease but has a sense of entitlement in terms of wanting to be rewarded for his stance. As I said in my post, my personal beef with Novak is his not wanting to follow the rules as laid down by Australia that virtually every other player in the tournament has followed. Federer chose not to play last year at the AO because he did not want to be away from the family. He respected the rules enough to decide not to play. It all comes down to respect for the rules. Not only has Novak shown no respect for the rules, he has brazenly tried to circumvent the rules. Sneaking in through the back door to play in the tournament is the last thing I would have expected of Novak. Sad.

January 15th, 2022 at 5:43 pm

BYE BYE DJOKOVID! What a waste of time and effort from all fronts on this drama. I hope he gets some sense and stop playing by his rules. A slap on his arrogance.

January 16th, 2022 at 1:59 am

I’ll just put this here

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/mit-scientist-stephanie-seneff-neurodegenerative-disease-young-people-covid-shots/

January 16th, 2022 at 3:58 am

He got no more or less than he deserved. Bravo for trying to take on a whole Government! Cya joker and I hope not too soon. Adios!

January 16th, 2022 at 5:15 am

Oh Miloš what was the point of that link? Children’s Health Defence is a totally discredited anti vax advocacy group. Robert F Kennedy Jr is about as anti vax as you can get and bases nothing on actual peer reviewed science. Your point?

January 16th, 2022 at 5:28 am

I wasn’t supporting Children’s Health Defence, which do seem to be general anti-vax group, which I do not support. News article is just linked on their site. It is a Fox News video segment, interviewing MIT scientist about possible adverse effects on mRNA technology.

January 16th, 2022 at 6:38 am

@milos , fox news is not news most of the time. Especially the opinion pieces like Tucker Carlson, Laura Inghram (the one you shared was a discussion on her show)

January 16th, 2022 at 6:50 am

NK Says:
The no-vaxxers argue that Novak poses no threat to the vaccinated people and other players. Scientifically that may be true. But for me it is not the science but Novak’s lying that is at the core here. He lied on the form, he lied about social distancing, and frankly that whole testing positive thing in December smacks of tailored convenience to help a “messiah” sneak in through the back door.
While there is enough blame to pass around, I am afraid Novak brought this sordid and senseless drama upon himself.

January 14th, 2022 at 11:50 am

Yes, it seems that way NK. All very sad and all so avoidable.

This whole saga has been draining on us all as tennis fans. What misery! Absolutely horrific that Novak is not playing, but worse to put others at risk.

It’s such a difficult issue to discuss. But clarity now, and we must move forward, right?

January 16th, 2022 at 7:36 am

Alison hodge Says:
Chico I haven’t actually said anything about the whole vaccine saga, as I actually have problems of my own at the moment, my husband having a stroke, I don’t come here and blog too often anymore, what I come here for is the sport of tennis, a bit of excapism, from this crazy world we live in, guess I’ve come to the wrong place over and out, its all yourd

January 14th, 2022 at 4:08 pm

Alison,

You know that every decent person on this planet would feel empathy for you, but please do not post your personal problems on a tennis board. It is not edifying.
You have asked us all to stick to tennis, and then you talk about your husband?

Yes, let’s get back to tennis.

January 16th, 2022 at 7:43 am

Well I’m not the first person to do that here, and I won’t be the last, so why your singling me out I don’t know,when there’s talk on politics no end, don’t like double standards, and there’s no need to keep repeating everybody else’s posts word for word, when your trying to make your point, go Rafa, go Andy, go Shapovalov, there you go tennis talk.

January 18th, 2022 at 1:43 am

Post for Madmax

January 18th, 2022 at 1:45 am

BTW I think a lot of people actually forgot through all the Novak talk, that there is another all time great, trying to make history here, going for a 21st GS title, then talk of 22 at the FO, long way off I know, but imagine that lol

January 18th, 2022 at 2:05 am

@Alison,

Tell Sean, that it should be mandatory (like the vaccine), that each person who is posting on TX, to write something about Nadal or other tennis players first. Then we should get the right to speak about Djokovic.

You can write here, if you want:

https://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2022-01-17/34057.php

As you can see, we are already talking about the French Open.

https://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2022-01-17/34061.php

Who cares about AO? :)

January 18th, 2022 at 5:12 am

Lol nah not biting sorry 😀

January 18th, 2022 at 7:33 am

I know, that you are not biting, just do not tell the others, what they should write or talk about. Not nice.

Feel free to talk yourself about what you want :)

January 18th, 2022 at 8:20 am

@giles yes! How dare Novak try to take on the all seeing, all knowing, benevolent government! How dare he. We don’t need troublemakers like that around.

January 18th, 2022 at 9:52 am

Van Persie okay fair enough, but you need to tell the rest, about telling people what to post, and for what it’s worth, although I don’t always aways agree with what he does, I actually support Novak on not wanting the vaccine, I didn’t want it either, but like Novak I was put in a position of not having a choice, unfortunately that’s life, peace and no hard feelings, have a good evening

January 18th, 2022 at 4:08 pm