The truth of Australian politics universally acknowledged throughout this pandemic is that whenever you’re not sure what to do, find an outsider to blame, whether they be Chinese lab workers, asylum seekers, expat Australians — and now, foreign tennis players.
Looking for an anti-vax villain to reposition himself in the COVID centre after a too-early stumble into “self-responsibility”, Scott Morrison leapt at world men’s tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic, swiftly measuring him up for the role of part-villain, part-scapegoat — someone powerful who could pay the price for all the weddings, funerals and family celebrations that two years of hard borders denied us.
And, on cue, Australia’s media fell into line, echoing the Morrisonian “rules are rules” mantra, long after the government gave up its hunt for insufficiently crossed “t”s, moving its caricature of the arrogant foreign rule-breaker into a moustache-twirling pantomime villain from the vaccine wars.
As ever, it reflected Morrison’s core skill: knowing how to weaponise media practice.
Struggling out of the wreckage as the long-foreseen summer Omicron surge crashed into the even longer lack of preparation, Morrison lunged for the media’s celebrity donkey — someone to carry along a narrative of otherwise far too complex issues.
Opting for Djokovic as his donkey of choice might have seemed peculiar — out of step with Morrison’s usual sports-loving schtick (which made a return appearance on the Murdochs’ Fox Sports pay-walled cricket commentary with his head-scratching “taking wickets in COVID” waffle).
But it aligned with the modern Liberal Party’s reflexive “tough on borders” tic, although this time more as farce to Howard’s tragic “we decide who comes into this country and the manner in which they come”. And a far safer choice than more readily available local options like, say, Craig Kelly or George Christensen.
For Djokovic, it was the fate of the celebrity in modern media. Ground down to stereotype, to churn news moments out of big social trends, filtering complexity through celebrity experience. Well handled, it’s a valuable tool, an opportunity to report our changing attitudes to relationships, personal behaviour and each other.
Celebrity break-ups normalised divorce. The market demand for diverse celebrities placed diverse faces on the news. Just these last few years, through Me Too, the celebrity-news link has turned entrenched harassment and abuse into a social moment that is driving overdue change.
Some people are born celebrities — like the now lesser-royal Andrew Windsor. Some become celebrities — like the famous-for-being-famous Kardashians. Others have celebrity thrust upon them, like sports stars, actors or musicians. Some leverage their status into politics like Donald Trump. Others, like Barack Obama, find their political careers turn them into celebrities.
However they get there, celebrities understand they have to play the game to get by. But it’s confusing. The rules keep changing — for celebrities and for media. Deprived of its monopoly on news, the media now is trying to carve out a new role for itself as a video referee, to analyse, second-guess and judge celebrity actions.
The problem is, media power — both soft and hard — no longer shapes our celebrity experience. The original fake news (hello, National Enquirer) discredited reporting. Paparazzi harassment culminating in the death of Lady Diana turned journalists into villains.
At the same time, celebrity power has grown. Social media delivers a direct route to their audience, bypassing television and magazines. In sport, in particular, competition for audiences and broadcast rights has made them too valuable to challenge.
In the parochial world of Australian politics, singling out Djokovic makes perfect sense.
In the real world, it’s a risky strategy. Truth is, if Australia wants to matter in the world of sport, it needs Djokovic more than Djokovic needs Australia.
The politics of international sport (and of tennis, where players are particularly powerful) is complex. And, in that world, Djokovic is not just a player. He’s a Player. It’s why the sole parliamentarian from that world, John Alexander, has been a leading critic of the government’s actions.
Australia is not the sporting nirvana we like to think it is. Governments and rights negotiators are continually pushing back against both distance and history. If the Djokovic saga has any enduring impact, it will be to make future rights that much harder.
Is Novak Djokovic really the villain the Morrison government has made him out to be? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Yet the real story of the Djokovic debacle is that it clearly illuminated the cruel and arbitrary power a single minister has to persecute any migrant the government does not like. Pure fascism. But the majority of the media chooses to report the ridiculous soap opera aspects, not the brutal power the government can exercise on our behalf against bloody foreigners.
Precisely. The ‘narrative’ of the Djoko case has been that of government ineptitude and bungling (something benign enough, and at last put right by the Minister and the Fed Court) rather than the malignant authoritarian legislation of the last 8 years, nearly all of it pushed forward by Dutton purportedly to counter the terrorist threat. The minister for Immigration now has inordinate arbitrary authority to deport people, even those holding Australian citizenship, or refuse entry on whatever grounds he likes, no explanation or reason required. Add to this the various laws enacted to rip away privacy and increase surveillance, or to jail people. And there’s the politicisation of the AFP. Our media has no interest in any of that, but will bleat when it appears that some of the legislation will hit at ‘press freedom’ or ‘freedom of speech’.
Tried to say the same, not as eloquently, in The Age comments. None were printed.
What a farce with some of the comments there – pure hysteria and extreme malevolence.
Apparently the Spain issue only important in aussie media.
Well it shows MSM is still onside with LNP etc ideology.
Scomo and co a transactional. Now that their actions re Djocovic have made international sporting events less certain a potential new income stream has opened for our corrupt govt. Bribes from sporting bodies. Expect to see them on donor lists from now on. There will be other transactioms not shown on such lists.
The actual story here is that Australian voters refuse to see what is so painfully obvious to anyone with basic rationality, it has been a hit job with News and 9 playing their part, as usual.
I would love the Chinese to do the same to one of Australia’s top winter Olympians, using the same twisted logic and the same abuse of rational arguement.
We do not have a Bill of Rights, but we do have a media that slavishly supports the Liberals and we have Judges who have a history of supporting government abuse of power, “because that is what the law says”. Even in the UK judges stand up to the government’s abuse of power, but not here.
But remember, Morrison who not have taken this decsion if their focus groups (ie Australian voters) had not shown that is what Australian voters wanted him to do.
Has anyone else wondered if the whole Djokovic debacle was deliberately engineered as a distraction from political disaster? And how many other shiny distractions may we see in the run up to the election?
Jennifer
I don’t believe so as they are not that imaginative. (Intelligent) However once the opportunity arose they embraced it enthusiastically.
Put simply it is like a parent saying to a child “You can play with that toy.” (Have a Visa.) Then making an enormous carry with ridiculous reasons like you should not pay with your toy because the other kids do not like you. (Give me the Visa back).
What does that teach the child , let alone say about the parent.
No wonder we have so many brats in our society.
Does anyone really believe that Scott Morrison gives one jot of concern over the rights or wrongs of Novak Djokovic’s medical exemption? Please be real and see it for what it really is – a pathetic attempt by a little man to appear tough. It’s all about recycling ‘we will decide who comes to Australia” from the Howard storybook – well it worked a treat for Howard
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After his laughable attempts to ‘lead’ Australia’s recovery from COVID19’ Morrison needs any distraction to get Australian minds off the out of control and ballooning COVID19 cases and the complete stuff –up of providing sufficient COVID19 test kits. Remember how for over two years the advice was ‘no matter how small your symptoms get a test’. That advice no longer suits Morrison’s agenda of retaining power at all costs. Now the emphasis is not on saving lives but rather using any means available, including sacrificing people’s well being in the workplace to achieve his ‘living with COVID19 ideology. And the best thing of all it is cloaked under the pathetic guise of ‘self-responsibility’.
Furthermore, we are advised by Morrison and the health ‘experts’ not to pay attention to case numbers. What a pile of crap!!!. Increasing case numbers are important, they tell us how we are faring against the spread of the virus, greater case numbers means more of a chance for others to get COVID19 and indicates the increasing strain placed on our health system simply by weight of numbers from of this slightly milder variant of COVIT19.
Morrison who is now so well defined by his incompetence regarding handling the COVID19 crisis, his use of rort upon rort, lie upon lie and moral bankruptcy is akin to a drowning man clutching at any straw to boost his popularity and hence save his desperate craving for power he believes he is entitled to.
He may be a pathetic little man endeavouring to appear tough Lionhart . . . but certainly his every focus, thought or move is to never be caught out as responsible, transparent or accountable. After all, were it not so. Why would Hawke, Hunt, Porter, oh! he’s gone, Fletcher, that other bloke down in Melbourne who never stops telling us we’ve never been better-off, the two or three female minor Ministers and, and, off course, Fletcher again; cos brilliance needs be respected.
et al.