Coronavirus: St Kilda party guests to cop $350k in fines

Dozens of guests who flouted lockdown to attend an engagement party in Melbourne now face fines of over $5500 each | WATCH

Dozens of guests who flouted lockdown to attend an engagement party in St Kilda East will collectively be fined more than $350,000, Victoria’s top cop says.

With the number of guests to test positive to Covid-19 rising to three on Monday, Victoria Chief Police Commissioner Shane Patton blasted the 69 guests as selfish, saying their behaviour was outrageous and disappointing.

Mr Patton said he’d referred the incident, which was caught on video, to his investigators and said he expected all guests excluding children to be fined each $5452.

“That’s going to be over $350,000 in fines,” he said.

“That’s an expensive engagement party.”

The engaged couple, who The Australian has chosen not to name, are understood to be members of Melbourne‘s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

In the footage, the engaged man jokes in reference to his doctor father: “Clearly this is legal because this is a group-therapy session. That‘s why my father’s here.”

On Monday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was angry and disappointed, saying the guests had created thousands of hours of extra work for the state’s contact tracers by participating in a potential superspreader event.
“Our contact tracers who are working their guts out for all of us will have to spend literally thousands of hours dealing with hundreds and thousands of people connected to that engagement party,” he said.

“That is the work that they must do, but it is all entirely preventable. That is what makes me angry and disappointed.”

Mr Andrews defended the Jewish community, saying the poor behaviour captured on video was reflective of only the individuals involved.

The gathering last weekend is believed to have been attended by as many as 100 people, including a St Kilda East mother and her son whose positive test results were among Sunday‘s Victorian mystery cases.

Victorian Covid-19 logistics chief Jeroen Weimar said another guest had tested positive on Monday, bringing the number of cases linked to the event to three.

“At this point in time we believe that the three positive cases were all at this party with 66 other people,” he said.

“But whatever contacts they’ve had, these important conversations we’re having them over the next 24 hours and the days ahead.

Mr Weimar said around half the results of the guests were pending.

Videos of engagement party emerged after an organised pub crawl in Richmond and people drinking on High St in Northcote over the weekend sparked outrage.

Unveiling new restrictions, Mr Andrews said people would no longer be permitted to remove masks outdoors to drink alcohol and said the state liquor regulator would look at the participating venues.

“You will no longer be able to remove your mask to drink a cocktail at a pop-up beer garden on a footpath as part of a pub crawl,” he said.

“The VCGLR and I understand Victoria Police are looking at what occurred at the weekend at a number of licensed venues.

“There are being reviews conducted into the terms of those licences and whether any of those licence holders have done the wrong thing.”

Between 80 to 100 penalties for Covid-19 breaches were issued over the weekend.