Premier Dan Andrews said on Wednesday that he would not be applying for exemptions for any unvaccinated player wishing to take part in the Australian Open, next year.
Speaking at a press conference, the premier said that he had agreed with Federal Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s earlier statement not to provide exemptions to unvaccinated players, but noted that Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt had altered their position to allow for exemptions for unvaccinated players.
“At the time, I had agreed with the federal immigration minister but the Health Minister Hunt made clear that an exemption process will apply … The Federal Government manages the border and … anything the Federal Government says on this is clear because their position has gone 180 from what immigration minister said, which I agreed with. I thought he was spot on. That has now changed; that is the federal government’s prerogative,
“Minister Hunt, as the health minister, has made very clear today is that an exemptions’ process will apply and that what I am making equally clear on behalf of every vaccinated Victorian who is doing the right thing, … my government is not applying for any exemption.
He did not think that the tennis tournament would go to another state because Melbourne was considered to have the best tournament facilities in the world and which were being improved with Victorian taxpayer money.
“We will be hosting that event but we will not be applying for an exemption for unvaccinated players to come here.”
“We have all achieved an amazing thing we are so so close to 90 per cent double dose vaccination.”
He appealed to those who were still uncertain to be vaccinated for everyone’s safety.
“The trend is that 95 percent of people in hospital that are really unwell are not fully vaccinated. Let us not add to the workload of our nurses” Mr Andrews said.
Requirements “fair”, says Tsitsipas
Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas announced that he would get his COVID-19 vaccination this week. He said that limitations on unvaccinated tennis players, including the requirement to go into quarantine, were fair.
In August, Tsitsipas generated a social media storm when he revealed in an interview that he had not yet been vaccinated as it had not been made mandatory to do so at the time.
“No one has made it a mandatory thing to be vaccinated. At some point I will have to, I am pretty sure about it, But, so far, it hasn’t been mandatory to compete, so I haven’t done it,” he had said a week after he had refused to declare his vaccination status.
His stance prompted a strong reaction, including a response from Greek government spokesperson, Giannis Economou who said: “He has neither the knowledge, nor the studies, nor the research work, that would allow him to form an opinion about it.”
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When a reporter asked Tsitsipas whether he would comply with Australian requirements that players had to be vaccinated if they were to play in the Australian Open, the tennis players said the requirements were fair.
The furore the Greek world number three faced followed in the wake of world number one Novak Djokovic’s publicly declared reluctance to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
