Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has called out the "appalling" behaviour of people flouting Melbourne's strict coronavirus restrictions.
The Premier's comments came in the wake of a video which went viral over the weekend, filmed by a woman who confronted Bunnings staff who asked her to wear a mask in one of the hardware chain's Melbourne stores.
In the video, the woman, dubbed a 'Karen' by many social media users, says "It's my right as a living woman to do what I want" and threatens to sue Bunnings "for being in breach" of the 1948 Charter of Human Rights.
"You are not authorised to ask me or question me about it," she said. "You're discriminating against me.
"I actually don't [have to wear a mask] and you're not authorised by the Australian Government to even question me about it.
"I can have you sued personally for discriminating against me as a woman."
The woman refused to leave the store.
Mr Andrews asked Victorians to ignore such people.
"The thing with conspiracy theorists [is] the more you engage in an argument with them, the more oxygen you are giving them," he said.
"Ultimately, I think people can judge for themselves the efficacy, the credibility of people who are running those sort of keyboard warrior campaigns.
"Seriously, one more comment about human rights — honestly. It is about human life. If we with continue with this stuff, standing in the car park of Bunnings reading whatever nonsense you have pulled up from some obscure website.
"Their behaviour is appalling. Their views have no basis in science or fact or law. Don't focus on them."
Rick Nugent, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner of Regional Operations, said the behaviour of those who "blatantly choose to disregard the rules on the insistence their human rights being breached is alarming".
"Worse yet, it seems these people are more interested in notoriety and getting likes on social media than the health and wellbeing of their fellow Victorians," he said.
"My message to anyone planning to break the rules is simple: no-one has a human right to infect other people and place the entire Victoria community at risk."
Both of Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officers also condemned the actions of conspiracy theorists.
Michael Kidd was asked about what was being done to address information in "videos from Melbourne" from "anti-government groups on Facebook".
He said: "Clearly, for people, you need to listen to the messages which are coming from government."
"The single source of advice or truth is health.gov.au please go to that website, use this as your source of credible information, don't listen to myths on social media."
Nick Coatsworth labelled the Bunnings shopper's behaviour "unacceptable" and said "the vast majority of Australians will have been disturbed by that".
"This is a small minority. I would like to commend the staff member and the staff in Bunnings and I'm sorry they had to deal with that," he said.
"There is no room for that behaviour in Australian society.
"It might be better placed elsewhere in the world.
"We see it happening in other countries, but not our own.
"We're in this fight together against coronavirus and mandatory mask wearing is not an enormous ask.
"I don't view it as a human rights or civil liberties issue. It is something that we need to do to help bend the curve and bring us down the other side."
Rob Scott, chief executive of Wesfarmers Group, the company which owns Bunnings, took to social media to express how proud he was of his employees.
"Very proud of the Bunnings team for doing their best to keep people safe," he wrote on Twitter.
"Also great to see 99 per cent plus of the public doing the right thing. Thank you!"
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiXGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA3LTI3L2xlYWRlcnMtcmVzcG9uZC10by1idW5uaW5ncy1rYXJlbi1tYXNrLXZpZGVvLzEyNDk0Mzgy0gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyNDk0Mzgy?oc=5
2020-07-27 06:29:00Z
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