The Australian has legal system confirmed why it had rejected Novak Djokovic’s appeal against deportation on Sunday. In essence, chief justice Allsop ruled that it was reasonable to consider Djokovic an anti-vaxxer.

“Mr Djokovic had for over a year chosen not to be vaccinated since vaccines became available,” Allsop pointed out. “It was plainly open to the Minister to infer that Mr Djokovic had chosen not to be vaccinated because he was opposed to vaccination.”

Allsop’s explanation runs to 31 pages and more than 11,000 words, which may explain why it has taken four days to be published.

Civil rights campaigners immediately expressed concern at the implications of the verdict – namely, that someone who held lawful yet controversial views could be deported for being a theoretical risk to “good order”.

In fact, it seems likely that the Djokovic case will be used as a legal precedent in future, reinforcing the Australian government’s power to expel those they deem undesirable from the country. One chilling sentence in Allsop’s verdict pointed out that, “There was no requirement upon the minister to afford Mr Djokovic natural justice.”