With apologies to Oscar Wilde, to have one former Liberal Minister say something pathetically inept, self-serving and deceitful might be regarded as a misfortune. To have two do so within twenty-four hours looks like carelessness.
The subject, again, tediously, is Novak Djokovic’s absurd, wicked and useless denial of entry to Australia. Mercifully, the Liberal butt-covering dills who kept him out in 2022 are now languishing on the opposition benches, where, on the form of the past two days, they might well stay for quite some years. Mind you, who can be sure the new Labor Government will see sense on the issue? Following Albo’s recent claim, in the context of the lifting of yet more idiotic Covid restrictions from our backs, that governments should stay out of people’s lives. So, there is hope. Would one of the lives that the Government should stay out of be Novak Djokovic’s? One might hope so. With a huge apology for stuffing him around last time. And compensation.
Back to the Liberals.
First, we had Dan Tehan making the absurd claim that Djokovic should be prevented from entering Australia in January 2023 to play tennis, on the grounds that the Australian immigration system’s integrity was at stake. What integrity?
https://politicom.com.au/slaughtered-libs-still-dont-get-it/
Now we have Karen Andrews, former Home Affairs Minister, weighing in. Ludicrously, Andrews briefly considered running for the Liberal leadership following the recent election. We dodged a bullet there.
The Shadow Home Affairs Minister said it would be a "slap in the face" if tennis champion Novak Djokovic was granted a visa to play at next year's Australian Open.
The Serbian tennis player was banned from entering Australia for three years after his visa was cancelled and he was deported in January, but has reportedly shown interest in playing at next year's tournament.
Speaking to Virginia Trioli on Mornings, Karen Andrews, who was Home Affairs Minister at the time, said he should not receive special treatment.
"It would be a slap in the face for those people in Australia who did the right thing... if all of a sudden, Novak Djokovic is allowed back into the country, simply because he is a high-ranking tennis player with many millions of dollars," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/programs/mornings/karen-andrews-novak-djokovic/101517438
Karen Andrews’ introduction the home affairs (in 2021) was arresting:
‘Disrespectful, humiliating and demeaning’: Australia’s new Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accused of bullying.
https://7news.com.au/politics/federal-politics/home-minister-accused-of-bullying-report-c-2479698
This, of course, was in the middle of a debate about bullying and other crimes and misdemeanours in the Parliament. Seems Karen’s own home affairs were not all they might have been. Nonetheless, she has prospered, unlike others so accused.
But what of the substance of her “argument” here? Is she right? Should vaccinated Australians – diminishing by the minute if “keeping up to date with your vaccines” is taken as the definition – feel insulted if the world’s greatest tennis player (or one of them) comes down under in January to play in the Australian Open? If so, why should they feel insulted?
There was never a medical reason for excluding Novak in 2022. Fact. Covid vaccines do not, and never did, prevent the spread of the virus. Healthy people don’t spread Covid. Never did. Those at risk of catching the virus and suffering harm were only ever the very old, the frail and those with co-morbidities. Not too many, then, among elite tennis professionals. Djokovic never posed any threat to anyone’s health.
The Liberal Government knew this, of course. The Government simply didn’t want anyone to notice that its own vaccine madness had no basis in medical science. If there were no medical grounds for excluding Djokovic, the reasons must have been otherwise. The Government feared being exposed for its own lies about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. It is simple as that.
If the Government didn’t know that Novak’s entry into Australia posed no threat then, Andrews must know it now. If not, she is simply not keeping up with Covid developments. With real science. The official science is what which she probably feels she needs to defend. She is lying. There is now incontrovertible evidence that international lockouts did nothing to prevent the spread of Covid. King Canute cannot stop the spread of viruses. Nor can Karen Andrews. Nor can Border Force.
To make a case, Andrews needs to demonstrate that the Covid zero madness advanced by her Government was the right policy. Naturally, she doesn’t do this. She cannot. And naturally, the ABC did not press her.
The mercifully departed Immigration Minister at the time admitted that the exclusion of Djokovic was about optics, not health. The Morrison Government didn’t want to have in Australia one who might be seen as an anti-vaxx poster boy. They had to maintain the false narrative, at all costs. The real fear of the Morrison Government was that its Covid narrative, underpinned by the vaccines-as-get-of-political-jail-free card, might be compromised. Might actually be noticed. Questioned. The big oops moment must never, ever happen. Letting Djokovic in looked like a defeat. This was, and remains, a sickening indictment of the Liberal Party.
Karen Andrews’ latest, pathetic attempt at narrative-protection clearly demonstrates the Liberal Party’s core ongoing game plan. It is to protect its grim Covid legacy at all costs. “We saved lives”. It has no basis in logic or morals or evidence. It should sicken those who are vaguely embarrassed at the utter abandonment of rational public health policy and humanity.
What should vaccinated Australians make of Andrews’ latest blunder?
Not much. Vaccinated Australians might ask, what about the promise of protection from the vaccines against Covid? What of the promise of safety? In view of all of the vaccine deaths and injuries, even among the vaccinated? What of the recent abandonment by all governments of Covid restrictions, despite the ongoing presence of the virus and the continuing deaths? What of the lockdowns? The vaccine mandates which still keep many out of their jobs?
Good questions, Karen. But you go on. Just blame Novak Djokovic. Deflect. It saves serious reflection. And admitting your own gross culpability in the greatest crime in Australia’s political history.
Paul Collits
11 October 2022
You are dead right. The former immigration minister would not know "science" if it disappeared up her backside.
The entire previous government should be individually on trial for their performance in the Covid scam. It seems to me that we elected an entire crop of complete morons from the dark side of the Uniparty in 2019, with a couple of exceptions in Craig Kelly and George Christensen. Problem is, in 2022 we elected even more morons from the darker side.
I told them I could do a better job as health minister than Greg Hunt (WEF young world leader).
At least I can do the science, but he obviously only does politics.