Students breach Melbourne coronavirus restrictions for McDonald’s trip

A Melbourne trio have been fined for breaching coronavirus lockdown restrictions to take a trip to Macca’s and then posting it online.

A trio of vloggers who broke Melbourne’s strict lockdown restrictions for a trip to McDonald’s and then posted about it on social media have been fined thousands of dollars for their “naive” and “shameful” stunt.

The five-minute video was filmed by a group of international students stuck in Melbourne, who posted about it on Chinese social media site Weibo, where it was viewed tens of thousands of times in the space of a few hours, before it was deleted following widespread criticism.

The deleted video featured the group sneaking past police on Elizabeth Street in the city’s CBD while the James Bond theme plays, before they arrive at the McDonald’s at around 2.30am on Sunday morning, despite an 8pm to 5am curfew in effect in Melbourne to combat coronavirus that the group had the “courage” to break.

“Can we succeed? I have confidence, McDonald’s is a reward for the brave,” one of the curfew breachers in the video said.

“Who does late-night McDonald‘s serve?” another asked.

“It serves us — the heroic people,” the first replied.

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Two of the curfew breachers dance while they waited for their order. Picture: WeChat via ABC

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The on-camera pair danced in the McDonald’s while waiting 20 minutes for their food, before returning to their apartment with their videographer, where they declared Melbourne’s strict conditions were “like a fart”.

The ABC reported hundreds of commenters on Weibo blasted the trio’s “irresponsible” behaviour, with one telling them not to “show off risking other people’s lives, even if you don’t care about your own safety”.

Another worried it would bring shame to the wider Chinese-Australian community.

They made it back to their apartment but later turned themselves in. Picture: WeChat via ABC

The trio themselves told the ABC they gave themselves up to police and provided a detailed account on Monday.

“Our so-called ‘courage’ is very naive before the law. We were a group of shameful jokers, and ignorant people seeking attention,” they said in the statement.

“We have shamed Chinese people in Melbourne, and caused extremely negative consequences for them,” the trio added.

“We have confessed our mistakes to the police today and received our infringements.

“We accept all criticism, which is the punishment we deserve.”

As well as the criticism they each received a $1652 fine with ABC reporting they copped a $5000 fine.

“For the sake of the health and safety of every Victorian, we need people to follow these directives and will not hesitate to issue fines to those who choose to selfishly and blatantly show a disregard for community safety,” Victoria Police told the national broadcaster.