Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has left the door open for the early return of recently deported tennis star Novak Djokovic.
On January 16th, the world’s number one male tennis player left Australia after his visa was canceled by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. This is the exercise of radical discretion that the federal court endorsed in an urgent court hearing.
Hawk’s move overturned a previous court decision on January 10 that allowed Djokovic to stay in the country. As a result, Serbs are virtually banned from re-entering Australia for three years.
Morrison told 2GB Radio that World Champions may be allowed to return in the right circumstances.
“I’m not going to precondition such things or say anything that the minister can’t make various calls,” the Prime Minister said on January 17.
“It’s been three years, but (Djokovic) has the opportunity to return in the right circumstances, which will be considered at that point.”
Interior Minister Karen Andrews wasn’t so bright, saying he could ban tennis stars until he was vaccinated.
“Any applicant must go through this process, whether you’re Novak Djokovic or someone else … it’s not an easy process,” she said in a comment received by AAP. ..
“If Novak Djokovic had been vaccinated, this story would have been avoided,” she added.
Opposition parties strongly supported the deportation of tennis stars, but criticized the federal government for failing to handle the problem.
“This was a completely preventable situation as the Morrison administration gave Novak Djokovic a visa on November 18 and failed to act for 60 days,” Labor Deputy Leader Christina Kennelly told reporters on January 17. Told to.
“They should have canceled his visa on November 18. They should not have given him a visa.”
However, Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg said Djokovic obtained a visa in an automated process.
“We get a lot of visas. There is a computer-generated process that relies on the applicants entering what they believe to be in their condition,” he said. I told Seven Network.
Djokovic’s final deportation has been criticized by legal and civil rights groups and warns that it has set a “dangerous” precedent for the erosion of freedom of speech on delicate issues.
The expulsion of a tennis star from Australia is an anti-reduction in which he is a “prominent unvaccinated individual” and “refuses to obtain jabs, strengthens and reduces their views” on other unvaccinated Australians. In the intake of booster doses that was instigated by the Minister of Immigration because it could lead to a “vaccine”. “
However, from a public health perspective, the minister acknowledged that unvaccinated Djokovic poses a “negligible risk” of transmitting the virus to the community.
“Our concern was that we didn’t have to prove that Jokovic promoted views on vaccination against the government, but it’s just the federal view that it could promote those sentiments,” Australia said. Greg Barns SC, a spokesman for the Lawyers Alliance, said in a statement on January 16th.
“This is a very low standard for excluding people from Australia, especially in situations where the authority to review or appeal a decision is very limited.
“Using potentially offensive standards as a reason to deny a person’s entry is problematic in a society that seems to be working on freedom of speech and freedom of thought,” he added. ..
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