The government is determined to allow ISIS brides back into the country but hasn’t made up its mind about Novak Djokovic. What a time to be Australian!

One of the few consolations about being forced to live through this period of history is how funny everything is.

The idea that our political class, whose first responsibility is to protect Australians, would prefer a gaggle of terrorist sympathisers to a tennis player is hysterical.

Sure, Novak is no Jesus, but the ISIS brides are no Barabbas.

Of course, the Left will be quick to remind us that we are comparing apples with jihadi oranges. The ISIS girls are, after all, Australian citizens and Novak is not.

Funny how they don’t feel the need to mention the other key difference. You know, the one about the ISIS ladies abandoning our country to support a regime that raped and slaughtered innocents, as compared to Novak who said ‘no thanks’ to an experimental vaccine.

Clearly the Serbian champion of tennis and bodily autonomy is the real threat to public safety.

The previous government deported Novak earlier this year on character grounds, fearing that he might turn fans at Melbourne Park into anti-vaxers!

They didn’t want the public losing their heads in the middle of a pandemic.

That seems as good a segue as any to talk about the 16 Aussie gals who jetted off to join Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s caliphate.

Now that their Islamic paradise of Sharia Law imposed at the point of a sword has fallen apart they are suddenly fans of ‘football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’.

Sounds reasonable.

We’ll have Qantas come pick you and your children up later this afternoon. Oh, and good news! Since you’ve been gone Alan Joyce has reinstated the in-flight vegetarian meal option!

We are responsible for the ISIS brides, scream the Left. They are, after all, our people!

Really? In what sense? Because they happened to be born here? Sure they took off to join the caliphate, but Australia was their first nation.

Is that the argument?

No. There should be no welcome to country for those who left our shores in pursuit of depravity and blood-lust.

The government, while intent on readmitting the ISIS brides and their children, admits they will need to be monitored by ASIO and local police for years because there is no telling what they might do.

Compare that with Novak Djokovic who will require monitoring by a few linesmen and a couple of ball boys for two weeks as he seeks to win the Australian Open.

But allowing Novak into the country would be a ‘slap in the face’ for Australians who did the right thing and got vaccinated, according to former home affairs minister Karen Andrews.

Leaving aside the fact that this seems to be an admission that the only reason millions of Australians got jabbed was to satisfy the government rather than to safeguard their health, does she really believe Australians are that petty?

Wait. Don’t answer that.

If politicians want to talk about ‘slaps in the face’ they might want to consider families of Australian soldiers who died fighting terrorism now watching as those terrorists are welcomed back, and on the taxpayer tab.

They might want to consider Western Sydney’s Assyrian community, many of whom fled Syria and Iraq to escape ISIS thugs and their wives. Now they could run into them at the supermarket.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan warned the Albanese government that allowing Novak into the country risked compromising the integrity of our immigration system.

‘If they single out Djokovic for special treatment then that would be a hard policy for them to defend,’ he said.

Let’s try. Being vaccinated used to be a requirement for entry to Australia, but now it is not. Novak wasn’t allowed to enter Australian back then, but now he can. That wasn’t so hard.

What’s difficult to defend is 26 million people against homegrown terrorism. Importing, on top of that, dozens of people who have been brainwashed by Islamic extremists is indeed a hard policy to defend.

But the ISIS brides made a mistake, argue the Left. They didn’t realise what they were getting into when they landed in Syria to join their knife-happy jihadi boyfriends.

It’s a familiar story. The travel agent promises you a romantic getaway with your jihadi and, next minute, you’re going all Allah Akbar on infidels and you land in a refugee camp with the kids. Could have happened to anyone. Let the ladies back into Australia.

But Novak? He ‘lied’ on a travel document when he attempted to enter Australia to play tennis back in January. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a calculated bid to deceive. He must never be allowed back.

What a time to be Australian!

You can follow James on Twitter. You can order his new book Notes from Woketopia here.

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