Opinions from real people/common folk about the Djokovic scandal

[topshot]

Why do you keep trying to stir up a hornets nest?
You are just proving to us that you are ethically inapt with what you do.

[AdrianN]

The whole thing ends with a "meanwhile in Serbia" epilogue https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60081853

Their government had plans to postpone a decision until after the elections (and possibly go trough with the project) but that position simply became untenable after the Djokovic scandal in Australia. It would be interesting to know how many Morrison sponsors are among the Rio Tinto heavyweights and what are their feelings now about his competence

[Budgiesmuggler]

The reasoning from the Court was released yesterday. It said that Novak did not provide any evidence to the Court that he was pro-vaccination, and therefore it was open to the Minister to cancel his visa based on the anti-vaccine information that the Minister had before him.

[AdrianN]

Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) determines vaccination advice to Australian Government and specifically includes exemption from vaccination for six months after infection, same as European exemptions. Most Australians were totally unaware of ATAGI and any exemptions and believed double vaccination was required for entry, and politicians here including Scomo constantly refer to double vaccination only. The Federal Court judgement is based on Djokovic being anti vaccination and nothing to do with double vaccination. The media have been similarly confused.
Having said that, Djokovic is not a citizen and accordingly not entitled to the rights of you and me as citizens. The disturbing bit is it shows our politicians are pretty dumb in what they tell us. What else have our politicians told us that is bull?

Actually the federal court judgement wasn't even based on Djokovic being anti-vaccination. The court only judged whether the immigration minister was within his right and within reason to presume that allowing Djokovic to stay could present certain problems.

[AdrianN]

I gather that per Australian standards the distance between Belgrade and Bucharest is almost irrelevant (almost 300km less then Melbourne to Sidney) but Serbia and Romania are very different countries (Slav vs Latin ethnically, different language, different history etc etc). Romania is a member of NATO and EU, Serbia is currently trying to join the EU and has no intention to join NATO after having been bombed by the allied forces in 1999 because of the Kosovo conflict.

Generally speaking the two countries have calm to friendly relations but that's about it. Djokovic isn't enormously popular here.

But the attempt to depict me as some sort of stooge of the Serbian president added some color to the general picture, so to speak.

[AdrianN]

I'm afraid you didn't followed the dialogue. Those were indeed my words, to which Andy commented " Apparently waking a sleeping princess is enhanced interrogation these days. Boy, my parents will have a long list of offences if that's now true." What I did then was pointing the difference between being kicked out of bed by your parents (so you don't skip first class of the day in school) and being suddenly pulled out of sleep to agree or disagree with legal stuff within a deportation process. I find it pretty weird that I have to explain this a second time.

[topshot]

I was thinking Belgrade for some reason!

[Budgiesmuggler]

Adrian is from Romania, FYI.

[338]

Adrian the above are your words, not anyone's here. The impression I get is most support 'an even playing field for all' with the rules equally applied to all.

[topshot]

I misread the city, my bad!

[WarrenK]

Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) determines vaccination advice to Australian Government and specifically includes exemption from vaccination for six months after infection, same as European exemptions. Most Australians were totally unaware of ATAGI and any exemptions and believed double vaccination was required for entry, and politicians here including Scomo constantly refer to double vaccination only. The Federal Court judgement is based on Djokovic being anti vaccination and nothing to do with double vaccination. The media have been similarly confused.
Having said that, Djokovic is not a citizen and accordingly not entitled to the rights of you and me as citizens. The disturbing bit is it shows our politicians are pretty dumb in what they tell us. What else have our politicians told us that is bull?

[AdrianN]

A president of an Eastern European country is most likely an expert in this field so he’s probably on the money. (He’s probably also Adrian’s boss).

I'm afraid your geography and political knowledge are a bit fuzzy to say the least

Now, if we go back to the "dangerously close to enhanced interrogation" bit that Andy mentioned, I suppose it would be worth noting the difference between the parents shouting "get up and go to school" and some border officials waking you up after 2 hours of sleep to have you sign papers relevant to your deportation.

Anyway, looks like those willing to express their opinions here are staunch supporters of kicking out people from Australia on reasons like "could excite anti-vaccination sentiment". If there are members of the forum who have different opinions it sure looks like they're not going to share them on this topic.

Thanks everyone who shared their input, it certainly was an eye-opening experience for me in quite a few regards.

[Blues1143]

"this press conference is adjourned!"

[338]

Amberale - I think we will find the whole thing is a publicity stunt for Djokovic's biotech company (well 80% owner) which claims to have a peptide to cure Covid

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...eo-2022-01-19/

[GrahamK]

Interesting how the original sentiment changed from "I was really curious how the real people/common folk from Oz feel about the whole debacle?" to "Is this the 5 minute argument or the full half hour". With apologies to Monty Python