The almost unfettered powers of the Immigration Minister Alex Hawke means tennis superstar Novak Djokovic will struggle to challenge any ruling to deport him.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s almost unfettered powers to cancel a visa make it very hard for Novak Djokovic to challenge any adverse decision in the courts.
Leading immigration lawyer David Prince, of Kinslor Prince Lawyers, said Mr Hawke had only to meet “a very low test” to cancel Djokovic’s visa on public health grounds under his personal powers.“It’s a very low bar ... the person doesn’t actually need to be a risk, [the minister] just needs to believe they might be or could be a risk,” Mr Prince said.
Mr Prince said the government would also need to show it was in the public interest to cancel the visa, but this was again a low bar. “The court up until now has said the public interest is pretty much whatever the government says it is.”The Migration Act states that the minister is not restricted by natural justice concerns, although Djokovic still has a common law right to procedural fairness.
The “public interest” decision for Mr Hawke is separate to whether either he or Home Affairs cancels Djokovic’s visa if it turns out the tennis star lied on his application form.Djokovic’s form said he had not travelled anywhere in the 14 days before arriving in Australia on January 6. The world number one left Spain, where he had been training, on January 4 to fly to Australia, but he had been in his native Serbia on December 25, according to a social media post – within the 14-day window.
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