Novak Djokovic wins appeal against Australian visa cancellation

Novak Djokovic will be allowed to remain in Australia after winning an appeal against a decision to refuse him a visa.

Judge Anthony Kelly quashed the visa cancellation and ordered the Australian Government to pay legal costs and release the world number one men’s tennis star from detention within half an hour.

However, Government counsel Christopher Tran notified the court that the Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke – not the minister who made the original visa cancellation – will now consider whether to exercise a personal power of cancellation of Djokovic’s visa.

This means that despite winning his appeal to stay in Australia, there is no guarantee Djokovic will secure a court order restoring his visa in time to play in the Australian Open, and he could still face his visa being revoked again on fresh grounds.

Why was Djokovic’s visa cancelled?

The Serbian tennis star had his visa rejected by border control at Melbourne Airport last week due to his Covid vaccination status, despite being granted permission to play at the Australian Open through a medical exemption.

Djokovic, 34, confirmed in court that he is not vaccinated, which was a mandate to compete in Melbourne at the Australian Open, and his medical exemption has been met with huge backlash across the tennis community.

He was refused entry into Melbourne after being interrogated by border officials for several hours, but Djokovic’s legal team managed to delay the process of him being deported after setting up an appeal hearing on Monday (10 January).

He had been detained in quarantine at the Park Hotel until the hearing.

What happened at the appeal?

Djokovic was removed from detention to be with his lawyers during the hearing, and Judge Anthony Kelly expressed agitation over the rejection of his medical exemption.

The tennis star’s lawyers presented their arguments to the court, but government lawyer Mr Tran only spoke for half an hour before a lengthy adjournment.

During that break the two parties agreed on the minutes of Judge Kelly’s order.

The minutes note that Djokovic was not given adequate time to respond to the notification to cancel his visa.

Earlier, the court published an order made yesterday (9 January) that Djokovic be taken from the Park Hotel – where he had been held since Thursday – and brought to “a premises as specified by the applicant’s solicitors” during the hearing.

Djokovic’s lawyers argued their case to Judge Kelly, who asked the court “What more could this man have done?”.