CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Australia is once again at the centre of global headlines, after our previously unknown Immigration minister Alex Hawke came to the defence of Scott Morrison and cancelled Novak Djokovic’s visa on the grounds of ‘public interest’.
Novak Djokovic arrived in Australia just over a week ago, with plans to win a 10th Australian Open title. The 34-year-old was gunning to push past 20 grand slam wins, for which he is currently tied with rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
However, with the Federal Government facing endless criticism for their poor handling of the Omicron outbreak, Djokovic’s poor relationship with the Australian media and public left him exposed as a perfect distraction from the fact that Australia’s supermarkets are running out of of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.
Not to mention the fact that our Prime Minister is making Australians pay up to $30 a pop for their own rapid antigen tests – a capitalistic approach to the pandemic that not even the UK or USA would go near – as they provide the same products for free.
However, Novak Djokovic was unvaxxed – and it didn’t matter how many exemptions he got from the Victorian Government or Tennis Australia – nothing was going to save him from the embattled Scotty From Marketing crosshairs, as he searched desperately for something else to distract the media from the collapse of Australian society.
On top of the French President Emmanuel Macron, Australia now has millions of more enemies in Europe after Novak Djokovic was deported from our country last night.
After an extraordinary 12 days concluded with the federal court’s decision to uphold the cancellation of his visa, on a Sunday afternoon, the Djokovic scandal has been a great insight into how Australia’s borders can be used for political point-scoring by a government who is willing to severe ties with every country in the world except Joe Biden’s America.
Unfortunately for Australians, the sensationalist theatre of xenophobia that has dominated headlines for the last week actually hasn’t resolved any of the issues that Djokovic’s deportation was aimed at distracting from.
Ambulances are still not turning up to emergencies, trucks full of Australian produce are still not turning up at the supermarket, and kids still can’t go to school – as the entire nation grapples with an explosion in case numbers.
But the good news is, Australia doesn’t have to worry about our famous tennis tournament being tainted by the inclusion of the world number one.
