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Comment by throwaway4good | Hacker News Reader

Completely absurd behavior from the Australian authorities.

They knew he wasn’t vaccinated from the get go, yet gave him an exemption which they later withdrew after he entered the country.

No way to treat anyone, international tennis star or not.

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Even disregarding that the exemption was issued by the tennis association to play in the tournament, not for entering the country… it was predicated on him being able to provide a valid medical reason, _and_ not lying on his entry documents. Neither of which he managed to do.

The judge's opinion does not concur: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/1/10/judge-reinstates-...

  Judge Kelly noted that Djokovic had provided officials at Melbourne’s airport with a medical exemption given him by Tennis Australia, which is organising the tournament, and two medical panels.

  “The point I’m somewhat agitated about is what more could this man have done?” Kelly asked Djokovic’s lawyer, Nick Wood.

  Wood agreed with the judge that Djokovic could not have done more.

All this posturing about "rules are rules" seems to be an after-the-fact finger-pointing exercise and trying to get someone to own a decision that should not have been made in the first place.

Nope. Here’s a good thread summarising the original cancellation: https://twitter.com/sangpillai/status/1481906405011783682

Note that:

> No agreement, and no decision, was made on whether the ABF officer could have cancelled Djokovic’s visa under s 116 in a watertight way. All that was found was that the process he followed was deficient enough that the original cancellation couldn’t stand.

I do not understand the "what more could this man have done?" line.

Trying very hard to meet the rules for entering a country, but not actually being able to meet them, does not normally give people the right to enter that country.

I think the sticking point here was that he was given approval by the Victorian government which failed to communicate with the federal government. Arguably you can frame it as his fault that he did not get an assurance from the federal government, but a reasonable person would not expect the state government to have failed to secure the required assurances from the federal government.

Failure to understand the system is also not usually grounds for being allowed to enter a country.

Yes. Even the court says he provided the documentation required.

I don't understand how anyone can defend Australia's arbritary and vengeful border practices.

If the Australian authorities didn't want him in because he is an evil anti-vaxxer then they could have just denied visa from the get go.

Nope. That was a private comment made by the judge (who is obviously lacking in impartiality, since he made that comment very early on, before the two sides presented their cases). The decision to quash the original cancellation was due to agreement between Djokovic’s and the government’s legal teams, and the judge made no ruling of his own. See linked Twitter thread in the sibling comment.

I had a suspicion that the Tennis Australia and Victoria State Government did not want to take on the publicity battle and kicked the ball down to the Federal government. The person issuing the Visa at the Fed level either lapsed in reviewing or also decided to kick the ball down the road, which was to the Border Force. The Border Force had no choice but to act on it but messed up on the procedure. It's all bureaucratic or am I way off in thinking?

He wasn't given an exemption at all though? He was denied entry and then appealed. Are you thinking of the exemption he was given by the tennis tournament, to play? It would be understandable if that one doesn't work to pass the border.

The state of Victoria also granted him an exemption. I think it's funny that there can be miscommunication between the state and federal governments just like here in the U.S.

The Victorian government did in fact grant Djokovic an exemption: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/1/11/explainer-why-aus...

  Medical panels established by Tennis Australia and the Victoria government granted Djokovic exemption from vaccination to play at the Australian Open on that basis. Djokovic’s lawyers argued that he had every reason to believe the same standard applied at the border.

However, the federal government did not and now there's a lot of finger pointing – the Victorian government then also backtracked on it by refusing to file another exemption for Djokovic: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/novak-djokovics-vaccine-exem...

  The Serbian arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday evening local time, but faced trouble at the border, with Acting Sports Minister Jaala Pulford confirming that the state government was not supporting his visa application to compete in the Australian Open.

  She tweeted: “The Federal Government has asked if we will support Novak Djokovic’s visa application to enter Australia.

  “We will not be providing Novak Djokovic with individual visa application support to participate in the 2022 Australian Open Grand Slam.

  “We’ve always been clear on two points: visa approvals are a matter for the Federal Government, and medical exemptions are a matter for doctors.”

This is a particularly mind-boggling piece of grandstanding, given that the Victoria government had literally approved an exemption for him before. To make my position clear, I'm not at all a fan of what Djokovic is trying to pull and I think the guy should go and get vaccinated already, but this is a hot mess of the Australian governments trying to attempt some kind of face-saving measure.

Ok, I didn't know that. But still, in what way is Victoria responsible for immigration? Do they normally decide anything about it?

It seems like states can nominate (in other immigration cases) but it's subject to central rules too https://www.migration.sa.gov.au/nomination-process/about-sta...

I'm not sure of the extent of the Victorian government's involvement in this debacle, but it is clear they had expressly gave him their assurance (multiple sources mention both Tennis Australia and the Victorian government gave him their approval, even if the visa was ultimately wrong) and were aware of the circumstances (would be surprising if they weren't attentive to the world's #1 tennis player coming to one of the world's most prestigious tennis tournaments).

I think from his side it's a weak argument to follow but maybe it makes sense in a common law context - whatever instance has given him a go-ahead, he's going to use that and say he had some kind of assurance. It's just not from the right department or level at all, but he can try. He needs a pseudo good faith argument for "I thought I could go", and that's what he's trying to do - that's his foot in the door, then the courts decide.

Not exactly true. Despite not being vaccinated, he was granted an exemption for having proven a recent COVID infection in December. The state government of Victoria and Tennis Austrailia, the organization behind the tournament, granted him the exemption. However, his team did not apply for one from the federal government and the federal government had not granted him one before arriving.

Edit: Just found out from another reply to one of my comments that he likely also falsified his PCR report :\

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