Coronavirus Australia: Conspiracy theorist slammed over 'dumb' stunt, to be fined

A "selfish" conspiracy theorist who filmed herself laughing after she breached a Covid-19 police roadblock in Victoria can expected to be fined.

Eve Black, who calls the pandemic a "SCAMdemic" on social media, uploaded vision of her interaction with officers at a lockdown checkpoint, saying she didn't need to say where she was going, before driving off.

Her actions have been roundly condemned by politicians and health experts, and Black is likely to receive a knock at her door today.

"What she did was incredibly selfish and by posting it on social media she was encouraging others to do the same," Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville said.

The officer seen in the footage was wearing a body camera and police knew who Black is, Neville added.

"I'm sure she's looking forward to a knock on the door from police officers."

Black's video is one of a number circulating showing Melburnians subject to a stage 3 lockdown flouting the rules, with the encouragement and support of a conspiracy group.

"Let's take them down," she says in the video as she drives up the checkpoint, and prays to God to give her strength.

Instead of sharing information at the checkpoint, Ms Black asks the officer whether she'd "disturbed the peace" by trying to leave her town.

"No," the officer responds. "I just asked what your reason for leaving today is."

Black responds: "I don't need to tell you that. I don't know you."

The officer asked again where she had come from.

"I don't need to answer your questions. Have I committed a crime? Have I committed a crime?" she asked twice.

The officer then waves Black through the checkpoint and she can be seen laughing loudly as she drives away.

"I feel so good," she says to the camera. She then bragged about it on Facebook.

"BOOM! No fine, drove straight out of Melbourne, they took no info from me," she wrote. "No License, No questions of theirs were answered. They work for us, not the other way around. YOU get to ask the questions. NOT them."

Black said she was "nervous as heck" as she approached the checkpoint, but encouraged her friends and family to "know their rights" during lockdown.

She's not the only one fighting back against public health measures.

Black is a member of a social media page called The Conscious Truth Network, whose members have been sharing vision of their own checkpoint jumps.

James Bartolo, the leader of the conspiracy group, uploaded a video of himself arguing with officers for 20 minutes about whether their actions were legal.

Bartolo used similar language to Black, who was reading from a script on a piece of paper in her video.

He is encouraging Melburnians in stage 3 lockdown to breach checkpoints, arguing it's a violation of human rights.

His group has 1660 members.

Bartolo regularly shares videos with his followers discussing the "plandemic" hoax, questioning whether Covid-19 is infectious, pushing 5G conspiracies and sharing his theory that coronavirus is part of a push towards a cashless society.

In one bizarre clip, he also questions whether the moon landing was faked.

She has been slammed by National President of the Labor Party, Wayne Swan.

"It's dumb. It's disrespectful," he told Today. "And at the end, she says she feels good.

"Well, she won't feel too good in ICU. This sort of behaviour is what I think we are battling a bit around the country."

AMA president Dr Tony Bartone said it was "absolutely reckless" behaviour.

"Look, I can't understand what possesses some people to do what they do," he told Today. "Clearly bizarre is one way of describing it, absolutely reckless is another one word I would use.

"I would like to take that lady through the intensive care wards and show her the ultimate outcome of her ridiculously stupid behaviour. And really just everybody needs to hear the message and hear the guidelines. They're there for a reason.

"They are not there to make our life miserable, they're there to protect lives and to make the community safer, and she should get a real look at what's going on."

Questions have been raised about why police didn't fine Black on the spot, instead waving her through in apparent frustration.

Victorians breaching the directions of the chief health officer risk a $1650 fine.

"We will be issuing fines for deliberate, obvious and blatant breaches of the chief health officer directions," a police spokeswoman told The Australian today.

On Friday morning, Black deleted or restricted her Facebook profile, saying: "I have privatised my acc because I have better things to do than be a punching bag for your fear."