Talk About Tennis 2.0

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:05 pm Please expand on your comment of "government bullying people". Is there an optic in which that has happened? Either Australia bullying Novax, or Australia bullying its own citizens?
Serious question.

It is the latter. You can find stories that police is prosecuting people who are mask-less in the open air over there.

The virus is air borne though so an unvaxxed, maskless person is a threat to everyone.

Karen Sweeney@karenlsweeney via @threadreaderapp

New day, new judge, new thread. Justice David O'Callaghan is about to hold a procedural hearing in the Federal Cout over Novak Djokovic's visa cancellation and deportation. It starts at 10.15am AEDT.

To answer some questinos - today is purely a procedural hearing ahead of tomorrow's final hearing. I'm expecting Justice O'Callaghan will confirm the tranfer of the case to the Federal Court and some of the orders made last night around deadlines for filing documents.

Judge Kelly ordered last night that Djokovic be with his lawyers from 10am to 2pm today while they file submissions, so I expect he'll be watching this hearing with them or nearby. There'll also be two Border Force officers on the same floor so that he's technically in detention.

Today's reporting is brought to you by a lovely long walk with my dog. I might dive back into the hot cross buns later though.

And we're underway. While Judge O'Callaghan is sitting in court in person everyone else is online from remote location and he's made the formal order confirming that can happen. He's also reminding everyone it's illegal to record or screenshot the hearing.

He says the purpose of the hearing is to deal with confirming Judge Kelly's order transferring the case from the Federal Circuit Court to the higher Federal Court. Secondly is to deal with procedural isues.

Thirdly, he says the Chief Justice has asked him to find out from them if they think the proper jurisdiction is a single judge, or a full court. Justice O'Callaghan says a full bench could be convened tomorrow.

Paul Holdenson QC is speaking for Novak Djokovic today. He's appearing with Nick Wood SC again. He says he would like a few minute to consider a full court decision.

He says the other procedural matters are confirming Djokovic's application be filed an served by midday today, and the government's reponse by 10pm. There's also to be a decision on time limits for the hearing. Yesterday 60 minutes was suggested.


Mr Holdenson said there's an affidavit in support of the application being prepared. Ordinarily that wouldn't be made publily available unti lit's been "read" by the court - essentilly not before tomorrow's hearing. But he's not opposed to it being made public today.
Djokovic's lawyers are keen for a full court.

Holdenson: "I think three judges is appropriate. That matter can be dealt with, in our submission, by a full court."
Stephen Lloyd says the government is opposed to a full court referral and there's no justification for it.

"In the normal course, any party has a right of appeal. Having the matter referred to the full court would remove any party's right to appeal."
Just quickly - a decision of a single judge in the Federal Court can be appealed to a full bench of three judges. Djokovic's lawyers support skipping straight to the three judges, the government is against it.
Justice O'Callaghan says the parties will be notified later this morning whether it'll be one judge or three.
• • •

I don't really care about the man's accent tbh.

I do hope there is a way that all of the costs associated with this can be billed to Novax.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:41 pm I do hope there is a way that all of the costs associated with this can be billed to Novax.

They should be paid by Craig Tiley and whoever in the Victorian government approved Djokovic's exemption, IMHO. Djokovic would have never left Belgrade if they had followed their Federal government rules.

Every government bullies its citizens .that is what governments do!

I hope they keep harping on this point. If he's not going to admit the test result was falsified, he needs to answer for this.

Serbian health official disputes Djokovic's claim of when he got his Covid-19 PCR test results
From CNN’s Scott McLean, Nada Bashir and journalist Tihana Bajic in Belgrade

Novak Djokovic should have received notification of his positive Covid-19 PCR test results on Dec. 16 — as outlined by the timestamp on his test certificate — a Serbian health official said Friday, despite Djokovic’s claim that he did not receive official notification of the test results until Dec. 17.

Pressed by CNN on whether such a discrepancy between the time listed on the certificate and the time of notification via email — as claimed by Djokovic — could be possible, provincial health secretary Zoran Gojkovic said the result should have been received late in the evening of Dec. 16.

“You need to ask Novak Djokovic when he opened his inbox and checked the email. All I can say is that he has a valid document and that it was delivered to his inbox on that day, late in the evening. As for what he did after that, I cannot comment — that is a question for him,” Gojkovic said during a Friday government news briefing in Belgrade.

According to court filings, Djokovic took an official and approved PCR test on Dec. 16 — the results of which were generated after 8 p.m. on the same day, as outlined by the timestamp on the test certificate.

However, Djokovic claimed in a Jan. 12 statement that he did not receive notification of the positive PCR test result until the next day — after attending a tennis event, where he was photographed, without a mask, meeting with children.

A spokesperson for the Serbian prime minister echoed Gojkovic’s remarks, telling CNN after the news conference there is “no way in the world that he didn’t get the notification — no way in the world it could have been late by a day.”

Anecdotally, the results of a PCR test carried out by one CNN producer in Belgrade on Thursday were received via email two minutes after the time listed on the results certificate. Others who have been tested, however, say the time for results to be emailed can vary.

CNN has reached out to Djokovic’s representatives for comment.

mmmm8 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 12:20 am

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:41 pm I do hope there is a way that all of the costs associated with this can be billed to Novax.

They should be paid by Craig Tiley and whoever in the Victorian government approved Djokovic's exemption, IMHO. Djokovic would have never left Belgrade if they had followed their Federal government rules.

My hope is that Australians, once Novax is deported, direct their attention to Tiley and whomever he got to agree to the exemption in the Victorian government.

I think that Djokovic would have ventured to Australia regardless of whether he was explicitly told he could play the tournament or not.
As we have seen for the past 10 days or so by his relentlessness, he would have done everything possible to try to play - whether it was morally and ethically acceptable or not.
He's just that kind of person.

I read this three times to make sure I had read it correctly and understood what was being said.

"Cancelling Mr Djokovic's visa would prejudice Australia's economic interests, and jeopardise the viability of Australia continuing to host the Australian Open".

Go Rafa!

As I said before, I'd say the same for Fed if he were competing.

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A couple of additional perspectives on the Djokovic situation (video interviews):

Mary Carillo...

Jon Wertheim...

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I don’t know if you guys have access to the BBC morning news wherever you are, but they just had a very entertaining interview with former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer that’s worth a watch if you can (started around 8.35am GMT)

Owendonovan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:11 am My hope is that Australians, once Novax is deported, direct their attention to Tiley and whomever he got to agree to the exemption in the Victorian government.

If only there was some reason to talk about him for a fortnight during the middle of the Australian summer given how much the Aussies love their sports.