Novak Djokovic ultimately overcame excessive COVID rules — not all did

National Post, 09 February 2023

Deported a year ago as a threat to public health, the tennis star was feted upon his return to the Australian Open

SYDNEY, Australia — Novak Djokovic’s victory 10 days ago in the Australian Open was an invitation to re-examine the excesses of the Antipodean pandemic response — with lessons for elsewhere, too.

A tennis tournament is not a political event, but it became exactly that a year ago here, when Djokovic’s participation in the tournament provoked a national uproar.

Djokovic is from Serbia, but is the best man ever to play in Australia, having won the men’s Australian Open more than anyone else. He cruised through this year’s tournament, even hampered by a hamstring injury, losing only one set en route to his 10th championship in Melbourne.

Last year Djokovic arrived for the Open, having obtained a medical waiver from the tournament organizers, given that he had chosen not to be vaccinated for COVID. He had the virus itself in December 2021 and recovered, and so submitted documentation that permitted him to play.

The Australian tennis authorities are not the Australian border police however, and so when Djokovic arrived without having been vaccinated he ran afoul of the vaccination requirement. He was quarantined in a hotel and a national frenzy was whipped up against him.

Why should a tennis champion get an exemption when Australia’s pandemic rules were so strict as to prevent even some citizens from re-entry? In Melbourne the pandemic restrictions were at times so severe as to make it illegal to be more than a few kilometres from your own home.

Djokovic lost his appeal in the courts and so was deported — with a three-year ban on his reapplying for a visa. It seemed as if his astonishing run at the Australian Open was another victim of the virus.

“I was really drawn into a storm in media worldwide that was related to anything to do with COVID and the vaccine,” Djokovic said. “All of a sudden I became the villain of the world, which is obviously a terrible position to be in as an athlete.”

Australian tennis authorities called the whole thing “deeply regrettable.”

The seeds of his return were planted though by the same government that was so keen to throw him out. For in court, the Commonwealth government did not argue on health grounds, but switched tack and sought to refuse entry on political grounds. The government argued in court that Djokovic was a prominent non-vaccinated individual and that his presence might encourage others to refuse vaccination and therefore undermine public health policy. The government didn’t exactly say it, but Djokovic was deported in large part because he had the wrong opinion on pandemic policy.

It was a popular move by the government at the time. And when, due to Djokovic’s absence, the Australian Open was won by his longtime rival, Rafael Nadal, and — even more piquant — the victory moved Nadal ahead of Djokovic for the all-time grand slam record, 22-21, there was apparent rejoicing all over the great southland.

How different things look a year later. The view that Australia — and even more next door in New Zealand — went too far in pandemic response is no longer forbidden in polite company. In New Zealand, the premature resignation of former planetary pop-star prime minister Jacinda Ardern is partly due to the ex post facto declining popularity of her pandemic policies.

Late last year, Australia granted Djokovic’s application to have the three-year ban lifted, something officials were saying wouldn’t be done in January 2022. But it was hard to keep him out on political grounds when the policies themselves had changed.

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