The Selfishness of Novak Djokovic | Hacker News Reader

The Selfishness of Novak Djokovic

theatlantic.com

12 pointsbaylearn18 comments

While I don’t particularly care for Novak Djokovic, the idea that a government minister can cancel someone’s visa and have them deported from Australia solely because that person has expressed views on contentious social issues that the government doesn’t like is fairly alarming.

What about long term residents on permanent residency visas? Or New Zealanders here since childhood under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement?

This could have a huge chilling effect on the speech of people living in Australia.

Making false statements on an visa application form is grounds for pretty much any obvious consequences that follow.

To my knowledge, that was not the grounds relied upon to cancel his visa though. Had it been, I’d be a lot more comfortable.

> on an visa application

what false statement? I don't think they ask private medical questions on visa applications.

The only false statement in this case was not checking "traveled to other countries in last 14 days". And it was filled in by an agent.

Now, we can say that it is a ground for visa cancelation, but I'm sure if you've analyzed all paperwork for all other tennis players now in Australia you'd find similar issues, especially since many of them were also filled by agents.

AFAIK questions about medical exemptions or PCR tests were correctly filled according to rules communicated to him. We can speculate whether PCR test was real or fake, but these were not legaly disputed in two legal processes and are thus not "false statements on a visa application".

Let's not kid ourselves. In Djokovic's case filling out this single field incorectly was certainly not the reason why he was deported.

It’s infantile but I’m tickled by the nickname I heard for him:

No-Vax Just-a-Dick

Not sure this author understands, but he didn’t get his visa canceled for not getting vaccinated - he got an exemption as he recently recovered from Covid (which Australia allows for and why his visa was first approved).

He got his visa canceled because they didn’t like what he said about the vaccine and Covid.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/14/novak-djokovic-visa-aus...

He had his visa cancelled because it’s an election year here in Australia, and being perceived to be tough on the border is traditionally a big vote winner.

The decision to cancel was made by a government minister, and is purely political. The grounds given are largely irrelevant.

He said he had COVID a second time not long before going to Australia (Dec). Which is truly fortuitous timing - if he didn’t have COVID around then, he couldn’t get into Australia via an exemption for the recently infected.

And then video surfaced of him giving an interview while he said he had COVID. He choose to apologize for giving an interview while having COVID.

And then he managed to fail to disclose on his entry application that he had traveled to various other countries before coming to Australia.

This is someone who was looking to flaunt the rules and it didn’t work out for him.

> He got his visa canceled because they didn’t like what he said about the vaccine and Covid.

Also because he lied on and fabricated his visa documentation.

From [1]:

> Alex Hawke, announced earlier that he cancelled the visa “on health and good order grounds, [and] on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so”

The lawyer for Djokovic states:

> The delegate said Mr Djokovic may infect other people because he’s unvaccinated. The present set of reasons is starkly different. The minister assumes in Mr Djokovic’s favour every single fact that might have been in issue previously, that he’s complied with the law, that he poses only a negligible risk to others, Mr Djokovic has a medical reason not to be vaccinated, and that Mr Djokovic is of good standing.

> Wood [Djokovic's lawyer] says there is a “clear jurisdictional error” of “irrationality” in that the ground of “exciting anti-vax sentiment” is premised on Djokovic only having that impact if he remains in Australia.

> “He has no rational basis to say” Djokovic staying would cause more anti-vax sentiment, Wood submits.

It is not "because he lied on and fabricated his visa documentation."

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2022/jan/14/novak-djo...

I imagine top athletes are very concerned about what they are putting into their body.

Does he have any valid concerns? Have other athletes had any negative side effects from the vaccine?

Every and any medical procedure has risk attached, and consent was - until recently - considered a given for any adult of sound mind, which is to say that any concern about a medical procedure is always valid, at its base, as is the refusal to have one.

His wife thinks everyone is actually getting sick from 5G, look it up. He has no real concerns based in reality, he’s just a stubborn kook.

Stubborn kooks won the west, not sure if you mean it as an insult.

Given how many of them turn out to be on steroids I’d say it’s far from truth.

Yes, there were negative side effects reported for athletes. For tennis, there's a case of French player Jeremy Chardy who had to stop playing for the season after vaccine reaction:

https://www.news24.com/sport/tennis/atptour/tennis-veteran-c...

It's funny how they say "veteran player" when he's the same age as Djokovic.

by getting a safe, highly effective vaccine that would protect him

Well, that's exactly what my poisoner would say about a purported antidote (disclaimer: I am vaccinated).

As the top player... has a responsibility to be a good ambassador

I've come to disagree with Spiderman. One doesn't ask for talent, and so one isn't beholden to anyone for it.

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