Ugly footage of a woman who refused to wear a mask inside a Melbourne Bunnings store and then threatened to sue staff for discrimination has gone viral.
The woman, dubbed the “Karen of Bunnings”, can be seen arguing with staff after being asked to wear a mask on entering the store.
The unnammed woman tells a manager she doesn’t need a face mask because it is her “right as a living woman to do whatever I want”.
“You are not authorised by the Australian government to even question me about it,” she argues in the grainy video.
“That’s discrimination and I can have you sued personally for discriminating against me as a woman,” she adds.
Check out the incident below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Ne1aDZs7s
More footage of police purportedly confronting the woman in a nearby car park after the incident has also appeared online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ErbG7LXg0
Apparently, it’s not the first time the woman’s gone on one of her an anti-mask tirades.
News sites this morning are reporting that the same woman allegedly abused an Australia Post employee over the post office’s mask policy. Check out the footage of that below:
Thankfully, the woman’s appalling actions have been universally condemned.
On last night’s The Sunday Project, host Lisa Wilkinson said you “you can only shake your head” at the woman’s actions which she described as “a waste of time and energy”.
“Most of us have seen that footage of the pandemic denier having a very strong discussion — mostly on her side — with the staff at Bunnings.
“We have to say first up, those staff at Bunnings were extraordinary. They were patient, polite, they were professional, they never lost focus the whole time,” Wilkinson said.
Bunnings chief operating officer Deb Poole said the woman’s behaviour was “completely unacceptable”.
Poole telling 7NEWS.com.au: “The customer’s behaviour towards our team was completely unacceptable and we’re proud of the way our team calmly and professionally handled the situation.”
Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth telling the ABC: “The vast majority of Australians will have been disturbed by that. This is a small minority.
“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,” Coatsworth said.
Even former federal treasurer Chris Bowen chimed in, tweeting: “A big shout out to these Bunnings employees and all the others quietly and calmly doing their bit to protect public health in the face of selfish, aggressive and inappropriate behaviour by a very small number of people.”
