Australia's international reputation as a sports-loving nation has taken a hit. Our love for sporting superstars and hosting some of the world's most prestigious events has been hit by the harshest COVID regulations in the world outside of China.
The government has shown it is in no mood to go soft on border control, flexing its immigration muscle allowing it to cancel a visa if it deems it is "in the public interest" to do so.
Tennis players Novak Djokovic and Renata Voracova have been deported and will be prevented from returning for three years, despite not having committed a crime.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews suggested this past week they could seek an exemption if they wanted to return earlier. Funny.
Given their last exemptions weren't worth the paper they were written on it would seem unlikely that option will be pursued by the tennis players. It has been reported elsewhere they are considering other options.
The saga around the Australian Open's number one drawcard could also have a broader impact.
It makes a potential Melbourne bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games look a little shaky.
Some of the countries traditionally invited to compete might not be able to bring a full team given their current inability to access vaccinations – still being hoarded by richer nations like toilet paper from supermarkets during an Aussie suburban lockdown.
The Australian women's basketball team, the Opals, is preparing to fly to Serbia in early February to compete in the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.
Basketball Australia put in a bid to host the event here but the world body, FIBA, rejected it in part because of the Australian government's "complex" COVID regulations.
It would have injected several million dollars at least into the struggling local economy but that will be spent in Serbia instead.
More urgently, Basketball Australia is keeping a keen eye on the government's approach to COVID in the coming weeks and months with Sydney due to host the FIBA Women's World Cup in September-October.
If nations like Mali and Nigeria qualify through Serbia next month there are no guarantees they will be allowed in. Currently vaccination rates in those countries are less than 3 per cent. Nelson Mandela's eldest granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela, has described the hoarding of vaccines by high nations as "vaccine apartheid".
Although the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has promised visiting athletes from Australia will be treated with respect, the Opals players are preparing to cop some form of retaliation, especially from Djokovic's most ardent supporters who view his treatment by the Australian government as "disgusting".
Australian sports minister issues Slater a stern warning
Meanwhile, to paraphrase the Australian Sports Minister Richard Colbeck, who issued a stern warning to surfing legend Kelly Slater and any other athlete planning on entering Australia: Get vaccinated or get Novaked.
Slater is one of the world's most dominant athletes in his generation. Commenting on social media about the Djokovic fiasco he suggested: "Maybe Stockholm Syndrome can now change its name to Melbourne/Australia syndrome."
Here's Senator Colbeck's response: "The rules of entry into Australia are the same for everyone. It doesn't matter whether you're a surfer, or a tennis player, a tourist or anyone else," his statement said.
That's correct. But that's not why Djokovic was deported and banned from re-entry for three years.
The government conceded in its court documents that Djokovic posed a "negligible health risk" to Australians, and it was willing to accept he entered the country with a valid visa in line with ATAGI health recommendations, but because he is a sports icon and role model his presence may provoke anti-vaccination sentiment in certain sections of the Australian community.
According to Jack Anderson from the Melbourne Law School, it is the first time in the Australian legal system that such an argument has been made — that a sports star has a moral duty to uphold the popular values of the day in the society he is visiting.
"To me, that is probably the most interesting point because both the court and the minister constantly return to that," Professor Anderson told ABC's The Ticket.
"The golden thread running through the Minister's decision, and acknowledged by the court, is the fact that Djokovic has an influence in Australia, and globally, predicated on his sporting success and that this influence could exert to not just those in support of anti-vax but it also could influence others not to take a booster, or not to take a vaccination, or not to uphold various COVID restrictions."
So, where does that leave an athlete who might have chosen to be vaccinated but still supports what they view as Djokovic's human right, and anybody else's, to bodily integrity and informed consent?
Athletes such as Djokovic and basketball champion LeBron James owe much of their "role model" status to their extraordinary feats in a sporting contest. Each of them has achieved that success by having an abnormal obsession with extracting the utmost from their physical capabilities.
Their success depends on their physicality being superior to everyone else's. Naturally, they are more aware, more cautious, and even more sceptical about what they put inside their bodies. We can argue till we are black and blue the rights or wrongs of their personal decisions but the environment they operate in is completely foreign to the experience of most people.
For the record, we know Djokovic has not been vaccinated, we know that LeBron James is. We do not know whether Slater is.
While James took the jab he has not actively promoted vaccination like others, such as Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton. James has argued he would be uncomfortable advocating for others to be vaccinated despite being a well-known advocate on many other issues.
"We're not talking about something political or racism or police brutality. We're talking about people's bodies and well-being. I don't think I personally should get involved in what other people should do for their bodies and livelihoods," James said ahead of the current NBA season.
LeBron James is not expected to be making a trip to Australia any time soon so how Immigration Minister Alex Hawke might interpret those comments is irrelevant, but Kelly Slater might be planning a trip to Australia this April to contest WSL sanctioned events.
If he arrives, the Australian Border Force will no doubt be waiting. If his visa and vaccination records are intact, could Immigration Minister Alex Hawke still find it in the public interest not to let him in for his vaccine comments?
Professor Anderson raises an interesting point that was mentioned in passing by the Federal Court.
"In the Djokovic case, the court said something interesting, and it said something that wasn't dealt with expressly by Djokovic's lawyers for various understandable reasons," he said.
"What if Djokovic said, 'Yes I am anti-vax in the sense that I am pro-freedom of choice and yes I do support protests so long as they are peaceful and lawful.
"That would have been an interesting question. The court referred to that in its judgement, it didn't have to deal with that, but there is a hanging thread there that might be pulled later on by other cases."
Slater versus Minister for Immigration, anyone?
