‘Plainly open’ to Australian immigration minister to conclude Novak Djokovic was anti-vaccination: judges

Novak Djokovic could be deported from Australia because it was “plainly open” to the immigration minister to conclude the world No 1 tennis star was opposed to vaccination against Covid, the full federal court has said.

Chief justice James Allsop on Thursday delivered the court’s reasons for rejecting Djokovic’s challenge to his visa cancellation. The court found it was reasonable for the minister to be concerned his presence “may encourage rallies and protests that may lead to heightened community transmission”.

The decision resulted in Djokovic’s deportation just a day before the scheduled start of his Australian Open title defence.

The Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, had cancelled Djokovic’s visa on the basis his presence in Australia might risk “civil unrest” as he was a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”.

Djokovic’s lawyers disputed claims the tennis star was an anti-vaxxer, arguing that was based on one statement in April 2020 “well before Covid vaccines were available” and that Hawke had failed to ask the tennis player his views.

The judges noted that in order to deport Djokovic the minister only had to be “satisfied that his presence is, or may be, or would, or might be … a risk”. To win, Djokovic would have had to have shown the minister could not have been satisfied “logically or rationally on the available material”.

The judges concluded that it was open to Hawke to find that “Djokovic had a stance that was well-known on vaccination and that he was opposed to it” on the basis of the April 2020 news article.

In that interview, Djokovic reportedly said he was “opposed to vaccination” although he had qualified this by saying that he was “no expert” and “would keep an open mind”.

“Further, there