So Novak gets a medical exemption to play in Oz

[Hairy-Joe]

If he does play, I can see a VERY partisan crowd booing, jeering or even worse every time he hits the ball.

Am I correct in saying that he's still at the whim of a minister who may decide to cancel his visa anyway?

[schmittel]

If he does play, I can see a VERY partisan crowd booing, jeering or even worse every time he hits the ball.

Am I correct in saying that he's still at the whim of a minister who may decide to cancel his visa anyway?

Yes, apparently so. Immigration minister can just say no, and that cannot be challenged. This is same minister who grandstanded a few months ago saying no unvaccinated players will be allowed to compete.

But if he does take this option, it means Novax cannot return to Australia for three years. Big call!

[isha]

If he does play, I can see a VERY partisan crowd booing, jeering or even worse every time he hits the ball.

Am I correct in saying that he's still at the whim of a minister who may decide to cancel his visa anyway?

He is from the Balkans. The people in the Balkans are among my favourite people. Bulgarians, Romanians, Croats, Serbians, Greeks love them all. They are ballsy, blunt, stoic feckers who have been through really bad times. I would live in the remotest parts of Bulgaria with scowling peasants in a heart beat. An audience of privileged hecklers with their knickers bunched won't bother a Balkan chap. Wooohooo

[Calahonda52]

If he does play, I can see a VERY partisan crowd booing, jeering or even worse every time he hits the ball.

Am I correct in saying that he's still at the whim of a minister who may decide to cancel his visa anyway?

Yes, if I read it correctly, it was on a procedural error basis: the underlying point he is un vaxxed, and was at events in Serbia while testing + for Covid.

[Scotty]

Woooohoooooo!!!! I hope he fecken wins all round him

I just hope no one is seriously hurt in the rioting and protests that are going on at the moment there.

As one Australian journalist said on the radio this morning, it's an absolute cluster feck! Tennis Australia have a lot to answer for and while I don't blame Djokovic for creating the mess, he and his family have done nothing to help matters.

[Scotty]

So according to Djokovic and his test cert he tested positive on 16th December. This is what he was at on the 17th December, knowing he was Covid positive.

[Scotty]

Live press conference going on with his family there now on YouTube and they were asked about the above event and immediately adjourned the conference. What a piece of shit he is!!

Watch their faces change as they realise the cats out of the bag.

[Calahonda52]

Are you surprised?
this is the mind set that brought us

When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia and achieved United Nations recognition, Serbian leaders declared a new Serbian national state Republika Srpska (RS) which was carved out from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[59] The Army of Republika Srpska encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 18,000[60] stationed in the surrounding hills, from which they assaulted the city with artillery, mortars, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine-guns, multiple rocket launchers, rocket-launched aircraft bombs, and sniper rifles.[60] From 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defence forces inside the besieged city were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege.
The signing of the Dayton Agreement in Paris ended the 3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War.
During the siege, 11,541 people lost their lives, including over 1,500 children. An additional 56,000 people were wounded, including nearly 15,000 children.[57] The 1991 census indicates that before the siege the city and its surrounding areas had a population of 525,980.

and
Srebrenica massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre

[isha]

Ah Jayziz.

Really. Ffs.

[isha]

You yourself referred to what they've been through. I agree, if anything I think you understate it, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, concentration camps and the death of 140,000 in Europe's biggest war since 1945 is certainly a bad time.

Come off it. I was referencing their resilience. You and your compadre above you were basically suggesting Serbs in general could be viewed with suspicion because of their countries history, although you gave them a possible out if they were still kids at the time

[isha]

So when you said they lived through "really bad times", you didn't mean a war where 140,000 were killed and up to 50,000 raped?

Stop it. You know what you implied.

[Banshee Bones]

Let's face it, the President of Serbia could do with a little bit of a popularity boost at home, it's not so long since the population was on the streets in throngs baying for his blood.
I'm not going to argue the merits of vaccination or not but Djokovic is an arrogant bastard who knew the rules before he got on the plane to Australia yet seemed surprised when they applied to him. Who the fcuk does he think he is?

Have you considered ringing up that Australian judge to let him know that he got it wrong?

[Memento Mori]

If a Jurgen Klopp did something we didn't like and someone turned around and said "are you surprised? This is the mindset that gave us gas chambers" it would be called out for what it was.

[Scotty]

Seems Djokovic's been telling more porkies. He declared on his entry form that he had not travelled in the 14 days prior to arriving in Oz but he attended a training session in Spain the week before.

Some rumours now that he got two test results on the 16th, one positive and one negative. It seems he's been using both to his advantage. ←

If it turns out he lied on his application form it's a three year ban from tennis.

[Samson]

He won’t bet a 3 year ban. Wishful thinking on the pro vaccine side.
He is too big a name in the sport at the peak of his ability , playing some of the best tennis ever.
Also how bad can covid be if he gets infected and is back playing at the highest level in under a month, I imagine that’s why they are out to get him, shows it’s just a head cold.

[Hairy-Joe]

The Aussies won't care if he can't come in for three years. They didn't bend for their own citizens who wanted to go home to Australia for family emergencies. They ar VERY anal about border control. A lot of it comes from protecting their unique ecosystem.

I get the impression that he's arrogant enough to think that rules don't apply fully because of who he is.

[isha]

It's often good to have context for very large figures. 120 million people die in the world every two years in the normal scheme of things.

[schmittel]

It's often good to have context for very large figures. 120 million people die in the world every two years in the normal scheme of things.

And a great many of those 5.5 million would have died with or without covid in the normal scheme of things.

[isha]

And a great many of those 5.5 million would have died with or without covid in the normal scheme of things.

Or may have had their long life foreshortened by a year or two - stats will be interesting in next few years. Perhaps normal morbidity levels will drop somewhat? Don't know.
I still think there is a possibility the initial shock of Covid will put a bit of a dint in life expectancy, but whether that dint lasts over many years going forwards or is a briefer dip depends on what develops re virulence etc. Also there's extra deaths from drugs, late diagnoses etc, but lesser deaths for RTAs, work stress - complicated business.

[Peregrinus]

And a great many of those 5.5 million would have died with or without covid in the normal scheme of things.

And many would not.

The Economist has a running project going, tracking excess deaths in countries worldwide for the duration of the pandemic. This obviously filters out the people who "would have died anyway" (because they are not excess deaths); it adds in people who die of Covid but aren't recorded as Covid deaths because the testing or diagnosis wasn't done (which, in developing countries, is a large number of people). It also adds in deaths not from Covid but that are a consequence of the pandemic - e.g. people who died from causes that wouldn't have been fatal, but for the fact that medical services were overburdened or collapsed, and so they didn't get the treatment they would normally get. And it also accounts for non-Covid deaths that are avoided - e.g. if deaths from flu are down because measures taken to control Covid are also effective against flu, that reduces excess deaths.

The results are sobering. Since the pandemic began, worldwide recorded Covid deaths are about 5.5 million, but worldwide excess deaths are estimated at 22.3 million. This will be largely made up of (a) people who died from Covid who wouldn't otherwise have died, plus (b) people who died from causes other than Covid, but who wouldn't have died from those causes but for the pandemic.

[765489]

The Aussies won't care if he can't come in for three years. They didn't bend for their own citizens who wanted to go home to Australia for family emergencies. They ar VERY anal about border control. A lot of it comes from protecting their unique ecosystem.

I get the impression that he's arrogant enough to think that rules don't apply fully because of who he is.

I admire Australia's strict border control policies. Australians had to endure some of the most harshest covid lockdowns since the start of the pandemic.

Novak lied on his entry form so in my view should be deported back to Serbia. Why should this guy get off with a slap on the wrist while everyone else going through border control be in trouble if they were to lie on their entry form.

[Peregrinus]

I admire Australia's strict border control policies. Australians had to endure some of the most harshest covid lockdowns since the start of the pandemic.

Novak lied on his entry form so in my view should be deported back to Serbia. Why should this guy get off with a slap on the wrist while everyone else going through border control be in trouble if they were to lie on their entry form.

Djokovic has issued a statement conceding that he did travel internationally in the 14 days before coming to Australia, and that his visa application incorrectly said that he did not. He says that this misstatement was an error on his part (or on the part of his staff).

It seems to me that the Minister could go one of two ways on this:

- Cancel his visa on the basis that his visa application contained false information.

- Cancel his visa if, and only if, a visa would have been refused, had the visa application contained the correct information.

I don’t know what the normal practice would be in an analogous case involving a visa applicant who is not a multimillionaire sportsman and who has not already successfully challenged one attempted cancellation of his visa.

I’m pretty sure that, legally, the Minister can cancel on the basis of the false information, without considering whether the information concerned would have been material to the initial grant, or whether the false information was given dishonestly or merely carelessly. But it might look vindictive or politically motivated to do that in the circumstances of this case. It's a racing certainty that, if the Minister cancels the visa again, Djokovic will haul the Minister into court again and, even if the Minister would likely win this time, immigration is very politicised; he will consider the optics of this, and how it would be received both in Australia and abroad.

[Scotty]

Djokovic has issued a statement conceding that he did travel internationally in the 14 days before coming to Australia, and that his visa application incorrectly said that he did not. He says that this misstatement was an error on his part (or on the part of his staff).

Oh he blames his agent. Anyone but himself.

The full statement...

STATEMENT BY NOVAK DJOKOVIC

12 January 2022

I want to address the continuing misinformation about my activities and attendance at events in December in the lead up to my positive PCR COVID test result.

This is misinformation which needs to be corrected, particularly in the interest of alleviating broader concern in the community about my presence in Australia, and to address matters which are very hurtful and concerning to my family.

I want to emphasise that I have tried very hard to ensure the safety of everyone and my compliance with testing obligations.

I attended a basketball game in Belgrade on 14 December after which it was reported that a number of people tested positive with COVID 19.

Despite having no COVID symptoms, I took a rapid antigen test on 16 December which was negative, and out of an abundance of caution, also took an official and approved PCR test on that same day.

The next day I attended a tennis event in Belgrade to present awards to children and took a rapid antigen test before going to the event, and it was negative.

I was asymptomatic and felt good, and I had not received the notification of a positive PCR test result until after that event.

The next day, on 18 December I was at my tennis centre in Belgrade to fulfill a long-standing commitment for a L’Equipe interview and photoshoot. I cancelled all other events except for the L’Equipe interview.

I felt obliged to go ahead and conduct the L’Equipe interview as I didn’t want to let the journalist down, but did ensure I socially distanced and wore a mask except when my photograph was being taken.

While I went home after the interview to isolate for the required period, on reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment.

On the issue of my travel declaration, this was submitted by my support team on my behalf – as I told immigration officials on my arrival – and my agent sincerely apologises for the administrative mistake in ticking the incorrect box about my previous travel before coming to Australia.

This was a human error and certainly not deliberate. We are living in challenging times in a global pandemic and sometimes these mistakes can occur.

Today, my team has provided additional information to the Australian Government to clarify this matter.

While I felt it was important to address and clarify misinformation I will not be making any further comment out of utmost respect for the Australian Government and their authorities and the current process.

It is always an honour and a privilege to play in the Australian Open. The Australian Open is much-loved by players, fans and the community, not just in Victoria and in Australia, but around the globe, and I just want to have the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world and perform before one of the best crowds in the world.

So his agent sends sincere apologies, but not Novak.

[Scotty]

Pity the audio is not great...

[765489]

Have to give it to the Aussies, never afraid to let rip with the swear words