Novax Djocovid - Tumblr Posts
Random side commentary: as someone that does government/public law as a day job, I’m highly intrigued to see how the Novak Djokovic visa cancellation plays out… safe to say a lot of people are seeing just how complicated migration and visa laws are for Australia (and in a way, that’s the whole point - it’s complicated to deter people from seeking entry to Australia 😵💫)
Personally, I hope the matter lands in the Minister’s favour (ie Novak’s visa is denied). There’s clearly something wrong with the paperwork he needed to provide to prove either vaccination or a *valid* medical exemption under the federal guidelines. He can be granted the exemption to participate in a state government sponsored event (like the Australian Open) but it means nothing if you don’t meet the federal guidelines.
The advisory body on covid vaccines in Australia clearly warned the Victorian government and Tennis Australia that a prior infection of Covid does not in itself give a valid exemption from vaccine, only allows for the delaying of getting the vaccines. They removed it completely from the guidelines to avoid confusion before his exemption was granted by Tennis Australia, which appears to have not been keeping up to date with the change. The automatic granting of visas clearly state that Australian Border Force officials can, and do, check the validity of applications at a point of arrival (of course, what’s happened with the Czech player is a whole other issue - that’s wild how she was able to come through!) and if a visa is revoked then it’s bad news for the person. If Novak’s visa is properly cancelled, he’s barred from entering Australia for three years 😬
However, the court may use this weird section of the Migration Act that’s basically a catch all “discretionary” power (can’t remember the section off the top of my head lol), so who knows. 🤷🏻♂️
Regardless, that’s me today - working and having the case hearing on in the background… just need to get the fucking link to work haha