Confirmed! Novak Djokovic Granted Australian Visa

by Staff | November 17th, 2022, 11:16 am
  • 17 Comments

The Australian government confirmed that Novak Djokovic has been granted a visa which will allow him to compete in Australia in January.

A Thursday statement from Minister for Immigration Andre Giles read:

“Following the cancellation of his visa, Mr Djokovic sought revocation of the cancellation decision in accordance with the Migration Act. After considering all relevant factors, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, and Multicultural Affairs the Hon Andrew Giles MP decided to revoke the cancellation decision under section 133F(4) of the Migration Act. The power under section 133F(4) may only be exercised by the Minister personally.

“A decision to cancel a visa under section 133C(3) may be revoked if the person satisfies the Minister that the ground for cancelling the visa no longer exists. A decision to revoke a visa cancellation does not mean the original decision to cancel was affected by error.

“Since the cancellation of Mr Djokovic’s visa in January 2022, all COVID-19-related Australian border restrictions under the Biosecurity Act 2015 have been removed, including the requirement to provide evidence of COVID-19 vaccination status to enter Australia.

“Mr Djokovic has subsequently been granted a temporary visa to enter Australia.”

With vaccination status no longer an issue, Djokovic’s 3-year ban for being deported was waved by Giles who was not part of the January circus. A decision by Giles which will come under scrutiny in Australia.

News broke yesterday that Djokovic was cleared for Australia just before the Serb was going to take the court.

Following his semifinal-clinching win, Djokovic talked about the news with Turin reporters on Wednesday.

“I was very happy to receive the news yesterday. Yeah, it was a relief obviously knowing what I and people closest to me in my life have been through this year with what happened in Australia and post Australia obviously. I could not receive better news for sure – during this tournament as well.

“Of course, knowing that I have clarity now, what I do in the off-season, starting the season in Australia, also of course did relieve some of the pressure me and my team felt. Just giving that clarity makes it great for us.”

The 9-time Australian Open champion will likely head into Melbourne as the favorite. And with COVID restrictions easing in general, he could might be able to play a full calendar next year if the U.S. changes policy.


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17 Comments for Confirmed! Novak Djokovic Granted Australian Visa

Tennispompom Says:

Much as I love to watch Djokovic play, in his place I’d think twice whether to risk going to Australia or not. After all, he had a valid visa and a valid vaccine exemption in January 2022, but that didn’t stop the border officials from cancelling the entry visa after he arrived in the country.

Who can trust the Australian politicians after their callous and lying behaviour 10 months ago?

Even the statement that the grounds for cancelling his visa in January no longer exist, is a downright lie by the Minister, because Djokovic wasn’t deported because he was unvaccinated – he was deported because of the minister’s perception that Djokovic could be a cause of anti-vax unrest.

Remember the first court case, when the decision to cancel his visa was overturned by the judge and Djokovic was allowed into the country. The judge said that Djokovic had not broken any rules, and supplied all the necessary documentation, saying “what more could this man have done?”.

Djokovic was then arrested again for a second time, this time using a power available to the Minister personally to ban and deport anyone, in a rule where natural justice rules simply didn’t have to apply. Effectively, the Minister deported Djokovic because Novak didn’t abandon his health interests just so that the Australian Government could get political brownie points, and use Djokovic to promote a vaccine which is unnecessary for a young men who already had natural immunity.

All credit to Djokovic for sticking to his principles.

The current minister should have been honest and should have stated that the previous Minister was punishing Djokovic for refusing to be their vaccine poster boy, and that the Minister’s predecessor was wrong to deport Djokovic.

If Djokovic doesn’t turn up at AO, I won’t blame him one little bit.

Djokovic should be starting a campaign to remove international sports competitions from Australia, which has shown itself as a state not fit to run international sporting events due to political interference, meddling and endangering the health and well being of foreign competitors.

Djokovic should be doing that, but he won’t because he is too nice and forgiving.


zed Says:

TennisPomPom, I can’t see any scenario where the new government would treat Novak the same way again. My reasons for this are as follows:

1) Pre-Discussions

In 2022 there were no pre-discussions about Novak entering the country and playing at the Open. He and his team just followed the process, his visa was approved and he came to the country. Based on no rejections and no negative responses being received it was assumed he was good to go. We all know what happened next.

In 2023 it is a different story. Media attention, very public reporting that (a) Discussions were taking place with Australian authorities and now (b) Australian authorities publicly stating the ban has been overturned.

I can see no way they can reverse this without looking even worse than they did in 2022.

2) Public Sentiment

I cannot emphasise enough how heartily sick the Australian public is with all things COVID. The masks, the lockdowns, the closures of business, people being bankrupted by the actions of governments both state and federal etc.

The only view other countries get of what Australians are thinking and feeling is what the media tells them.

Believe when I say this, the media is lying, they are always lying. They are telling you what their bosses have decided they want the story to be.

The vast majority of Australians want life to return to normal and any government stupid enough to try to bring back the stink of COVID (ie by betraying Novak yet again) will be a one-term government.

We have had massive street marches demanding that things return to normal, I was present at a couple and read the news that “a few thousand protestors were present” when I saw with my own eyes, with video evidence available that easily 200-300 thousand people attended.

3) Conclusion

Novak is a nice guy, you are correct. He’s never going to instigate trouble, he’s not wired that way, so he is not going to organise any action against Australia. Can you imagine what the stinking lying media would do to him if he did?

What he’s going to do is what he does best.

He’s going to play as hard and as well as he can and (in my opinion) he’s going to win his 22nd Slam at 2023 AO.

He’s also going to win his 23rd slam at Wimbeldon.

He may win the USO this time around. There will be no exhaustion from the Olympics this time around.

Finally, going out on a limb here. I actually think he is on fire and could take his third FO in 2023.

Yes, Calendar Year Grand Slam coming is my opinion.

Haters can go and cry as much as they want, he is going to own 2023.


Wog Boy Says:

Tennispompom, please don’t make him not come, I already booked flights and hotel for AO 2023.
I lost my money for airfare this January when I canceled my trip, luckily I had free hotel cancellation, it’ll be too much for my budget to lose it again😁 let him come, please?


Wog Boy Says:

To prove your point Zed, just last week, 800 out of 3200 passengers on Majestic Princess cruise ship tested positive to Covid after docking in Sydney (number of crew infected wasn’t disclosed).
Nobody made big fuss about that, they disembarked passengers, advised them (not order them) to do 5 days isolation and ask them if possible not to take public transport.

If this happened in January they would close the city and bring paratroopers.

Furthermore, after disembarking passengers, they cleaned the ship and by 5pm same day they sailed out with another over 3000 passengers.

They interviewed passengers and everyone said they dont care they had great time, the new passengers said the same.

Since I am involved in it since May when cruise industry was restarted every cruiser that docked han 100 plus infected and every single one left same day with new lot of happy cruisers.


zed Says:

WB, adding even more.

In the past couple of weeks about 5 of our friends got a bout of COVID. No one gave a flying. They had sniffles, a bit of a cough, life went on.

It is now clear that it is now, and always was, a flu bug and all the lies are being exposed.

The issue we are dealing with today is the enormous increase in deaths of young people due to heart issues plus similarly enormous rise in miscarriages. Deaths due to “unknown reasons” are about 40% up from long term averages and this is amongst young people.

I wonder what is causing all that?


Wog Boy Says:

Even worse, those infected were 800 vaccinated people, since you need to be vaccinated to board the ship, it’s company rule not Australian.

I wander what Dr Mengele (Fauci) has to say about it?


zed Says:

Fauci, the person who had the vocal chords of puppies cut so they couldn’t yelp whilst they performed experiments on them.

He’s a demonic person, has been lining his pockets since the AIDS epidemic began.


Alison hodge Says:

Aww Zed as a huge dog lover that’s awful so sad 😥


zed Says:

Love them Alison.

Mark Twain said something like “if you find a starving dog and you bring him home and feed him and treat him with kindness, that dog will never turn on you, never bite you, never betray you, and that my friends is the difference between dogs and people.”

Or something like that.

He also said “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog”.

A very wise man was Mr. Twain


Tennispompom Says:

Hi Zed, I see what you’re saying (ehy the latest visa probably won’t be revoked), but neither the press not the public have much sway with the Ministers. The media aren’t holding the government to account, their role appears to be a propaganda outlet for the poiiticians, they’ll say whatever they’re told. The public can protest and disagree till they’re blue in the face, but the media just won’t cover it.

The ministers have this strage law that they can disregard the law and natural justice and they can do as they please. The only thing stopping them is their own conscience. I won’t hold my breath.


Tennispompom Says:

PS: Will Djokovic win a Grand Slam next year? Unlikely, he seems to be struggling at the WTF. He looked exhausted yesterday against Medvedev and the Taylor Fritz match isn’t going too well either. Let’s hope he gets into the final.
BUT IT WON’T stop me from watching him play and rooting for him!


Tennispompom Says:

Wow, Wog Boy!!! You’re keen!
I wasn’t as lucky when I booked flights and tickets just to see Djokovic play – I had tickets for the Belgrade Open semifinals in 2010 or 2011, got there a couple of days early, waited with trepidation in case Djokovic lost before the semis. He made it to the semi’s, of course. I watched the morning match, and just before the Djokovic match was due to start, they announced that his opponent had withdrawn!!! I was spitting with rage and disappointment.

Luckily, I managed to see him play at Wimbledon, at the London Olympics and at WTF at the O2 arena in London lots of times after that, but I never again booked a flight anywhere just to see a tennis match, and just stuck to the London tournaments.


Temple Says:

Well, the irony of it. A guy named Giles reinstates Djokovic. The (tortured) Giles here on tennis-x must be fuming.


zed Says:

TennisPomPom,

Just emphasising this a bit. If we view the world through the TV screen or the newspaper we get a distorted and fictional view of the world. If we view the world by talking directly to people or attending events in person we see a different view.

I’m not trying to convince anyone but I have seen it for myself. My own eyes and ears saw events that were later reported by journalists in a totally different way from the reality. I then had my own incontrovertible evidence of their lies and once my eyes were opened I started to see how often and how shamelessly they lie.

They are not capable of reporting information dispassionately and factually. This is because of their own biases and the pressures coming from editors and the owners of the media organisations. They also have their social groups of others in the industry so there is that pressure to conform to group think or face ostracization.

The end result is propaganda, pure and simple.

Denzel Washington said “If you don’t read the news you are uninformed but if you do read the news your are misinformed”, he was so right.

On balance, I would rather not read their lies and if that means I am uninformed then so be it.


Tennispompom Says:

Zed, the journalists and reporters are just doing their job. Unfortunately, their job isn’t what we told it’s supposed to be … free press, holding power to account, etc.

Reporters, journalists, even editors, do NOT have autonomy. They are a tool in the business of controlling the power of information. It’s always been like that.


zed Says:

Tennispompom, I agree. They are not demonic, they have cushy jobs that they want to keep and they’ll do what they have to keep the job. They have families, mortgages etc.

Not much different from the rest of us EXCEPT that the rest of us in normal every-day jobs do not lie to the general public and affect millions of people with those lies.

I don’t say the things I say in some naive attempt to change the world, I say these things in the slim hope that I can open the eyes of just a few other people. If just a few people are no longer misled then I think I’ve done a good thing.

My simple rule is if a politician (of any political side) is saying something, if a journalist is saying something, if a bureacratic department is saying something, then the odds are high that they are lying.

In part, or in full, they are lying.


Tennispompom Says:

Yep, the main job requirements are 1) not to be hampered by ethics, facts and a conscience; and 2) to do as they’re told by the powers that be.

Of course they’re lying. And they know it.

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