The Victorian government did in fact grant Djokovic an exemption: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/1/11/explainer-why-aus...

  Medical panels established by Tennis Australia and the Victoria government granted Djokovic exemption from vaccination to play at the Australian Open on that basis. Djokovic’s lawyers argued that he had every reason to believe the same standard applied at the border.

However, the federal government did not and now there's a lot of finger pointing – the Victorian government then also backtracked on it by refusing to file another exemption for Djokovic: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/novak-djokovics-vaccine-exem...

  The Serbian arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday evening local time, but faced trouble at the border, with Acting Sports Minister Jaala Pulford confirming that the state government was not supporting his visa application to compete in the Australian Open.

  She tweeted: “The Federal Government has asked if we will support Novak Djokovic’s visa application to enter Australia.

  “We will not be providing Novak Djokovic with individual visa application support to participate in the 2022 Australian Open Grand Slam.

  “We’ve always been clear on two points: visa approvals are a matter for the Federal Government, and medical exemptions are a matter for doctors.”

This is a particularly mind-boggling piece of grandstanding, given that the Victoria government had literally approved an exemption for him before. To make my position clear, I'm not at all a fan of what Djokovic is trying to pull and I think the guy should go and get vaccinated already, but this is a hot mess of the Australian governments trying to attempt some kind of face-saving measure.