So, Australia, famous tennis player Novak Djokovic, has been granted a medical exemption to come and play Tennis in Australia, he then arrived with Border Force officials rejecting his paperwork, which then publicly engaged his father, the Serbian President, the CEO of Tennis Australia, the acting Dictator of Victoria and the PM. Ultimately, his visa has been rejected and he has now launched a court appeal against his ordered deportation. At the writing of this blog his is under guard in a Melbourne Motel. There are two sides to this issue for Aussies. Those who think Djokovic is a hero for standing his ground and those who think Djokovic was given special treatment because he is not one of the little people. I get both sides. There are other sides to the issue.
Here is what I think
1) So many Australians have applied for medical exemptions. We have all heard the emotionally harrowing stories of people simply wanting to cross state borders to see dying loved ones or just return home, with those exemptions mostly being denied, or taking weeks to even see the light of day. I remember the story of an elderly man who died 50k’s south of the Queensland border, waiting to go and live with his son, he died because he froze to death in his caravan. (Let me digress for a moment….this is Australia and we are shutting out people across our state borders….Aren’t Aussies Australian?, or have each state become their own nation?) The fact that a medical exemption was granted to a famous tennis player, seemingly in a very short space of time, has ticked the ire of Australians. As a Queenslander, we were certainly ticked when Queen Anna, let in footy players and their family’s whilst Queensland residents were shut out. Aussie’s like fair. I like fair. But we are not seeing fair with the way our state and national leaders are treating us. Oh I want to sing Advance Australia Fair. The problem is, I would choke on our National Anthem at the moment. And for someone who is passionately patriotic, the pain I feel as my love for Australia wanes is real.
Well that escalated quickly.
2) People applauded the fact that Djokovic stood his ground and won. And there is a fair bit in me that agrees with this, as I too am ticked at the control of vaccine mandates etc. But there shouldn’t be different rules for different people. This is my bug bear, the government, both state and federal, as well as officials like Tennis Australia or the NRL board, seem to be inconsistent, providing leadership on the run, or are they just plain incompetent.
3) Bruce Jenner was allowed in to Australia to go into Celebrity Big Brother. Apparently, he was given a special exemption when no one was allowed into Australia. Sorry, I meant Caitlin. And shouldn’t it be Celebrity Big Sister???
4) The fact that Djokovic was granted a medical exemption polarised Australia. But then the CEO of Tennis Australia came out and said that the process of granting medical exemptions was ‘robust’ and that Djokovic received ‘no special treatment’. Apparently, there were two separate independent boards, who were involved in the process. The fact that he arrived and couldn’t provide the right paper work that proved his medical exemption, shows that the process is not robust and that clearly Djokovic received preferential treatment.
5) Who keeps those two Independent Boards accountable? Clearly, they have stuffed up monumentally. So, who is sacked? Who is issuing the public statement? Oh wait….they will wait it out for 3 days. The media and Australia will rage and then they will forget about it, more interested in the new political coup in PNG. Sadly, Australian’s have the media attention span of a gold fish. Oh wait, I have gold fish….which is the pic on this blog.
6) I think that the PM touting his record as Immigration Minister, (on Channel 10 News on Thursday night), who ‘stopped the boats’ in spruiking his border control credentials, is totally unhelpful. Djokovic is not a person who paid people smugglers to get on a dodgy boat to travel to northern Australian, border control has different contexts and this was a dumb parallel.
My fish is called Stephanie.
Anyway, that’s what I think.
Peter Pilt.
Categories: Australian, Covid Related Posts, Govt BS, Uncategorized
peterpilt 
OK, it’s ” Bruce Jenner” and he is a he. (Nuff said!)
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From what I’ve read somewhere those who approved the exemption didn’t know who it was for. If true should this throw some water on the “he got special treatment” mantra. (With the NRL it was certainly known who it was for).
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The way Australians have been treated sucks and people should be held accountable (they will later if not now). But should that be the reason others are treated lousily?
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What way should we go? “We were treated bad so treat him bad”, or “he was treated good so let’s treat others good”?
safer to say ‘Celebrity Big Sibling’ I’d suggest…anyway, we dodged a bullet throwing out that virus volcano, I mean what country would or should ever risk a fit, young athlete with no symptoms whatsoever landing on its soil…we’d (except the few seated in cafes etc )have hours to get our affairs in order! as far as the other border issues go, this basically puts the sword to the stupid idea of ‘federalism’…all these drongo, maniac ‘premiers’…get rid of the cnts
We have Premiers johnson because Australia started out as independent states.
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The ALP states seem to be harsher in what they are doing and I wonder how much of that is politically intended, hoping to make the Lib Federal government look bad?
“Legislators always consider reasonable risk against expert advice from medical, police and even roads technical departments before deciding on a road rule, such as a prescribed speed limit. That advice leads to a consistent approach across all jurisdictions. (the Australian Road Rules and Regulations). Advice is measured and a consistent approach is applied…everyone accepts that as the evidence as well as the process supports it. But with covid, the response has been so inconsistent across state borders, people tend to second guess the experts which then undermines confidence in governments approach. The responses need to become more consistent to win back the communities confidence, and then, and only then will more people get behind the program. There is a genuine lack of trust in the community! And justifiably!
Good thoughts Peter Pilt. So many are jumping on Facebook and making the same endless tired jokes and I feel some are close to ‘hate’ speech. As an aside, it’s like when I try and discuss the pros of Daylight Saving Time (I’m in favour) … and you just get back – ‘go back south’ – or even silly comments regarding ‘faded curtains’. State your view sensibly. We should be able to have some ‘sensible dialogue’ – and especially if you have a Christian faith be charitable with your view rather than sound unloving or mean.