Court documents reveal in detail the real reason Australia's Immigration Minister Alex Hawke decided to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa citing health and anti-vaxx sentiment risks, something which appeared odd given the country's high vaccination rate.
Complete court documents revealing the exchange between Djokovic lawyers and Minister for Immigration can be viewed here:
Sealed-Affidavit-Bannister-1512022.pdf (fedcourt.gov.au)
“Mr Djokovic’s presence in Australia may pose a health risk to the Australian community, in that his presence in Australia may foster anti-vaccination sentiment leading to other unvaccinated persons refusing to become vaccinated, other unvaccinated persons being reinforced in their existing view not to become vaccinated, and/or a reduction in the uptake of booster vaccines,” Mr Hawke wrote.
“There is evidence to suggest that Mr Djokovic has, in the past, shown an apparent disregard for the need to isolate following the receipt of a positive Covid-19 test result.
“Given Mr Djokovic’s high profile status and position as a role model in the sporting and broader community, his ongoing presence in Australia may foster similar disregard for the precautionary requirements following receipt of a positive COVID-19 test in Australia. In particular, his behaviour may encourage or influence others to emulate his prior conduct and fail to comply with appropriate public health measures following a positive COVID-19 test result, which itself could lead to the transmission of the disease and serious risk to their health and others.”
Meanwhile there was a brief dispute over whether the final court hearing tomorrow will be before the full court or the one assigned judge, ,Justice O‘Callaghan alone – Djokovic’s team wanted a panel of three justices, while the Federal Government called for just the one.
Justice O‘Callaghan said the two sides will be informed whether they’ll face the full court or not later today.