A woman in Lake Macquarie and the staff at a Sydney massage parlour have become the first people issued with fines under new public health laws designed to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The 65-year-old woman, who had returned to Sydney International Airport on a flight from Bali, had been told she was required to quarantine for a 14-day period.
NSW Police officers have now been given the additional power to issue penalty notices to anyone found to be in contravention of the lockdown laws, with fines of $1000 for individuals and $5000 for businesses.
After receiving information that the woman had contravened her quarantine order, officers from Lake Macquarie Police District attended her Redhead home about midday on Monday, March 23rd and issued her with a warning for breaching the order.
Despite this, police say she left her house again on Thursday morning, and this afternoon she was issued a $1000 fine.
"No one is above the law. If you decide to ignore a direction, you will be caught, and you may very well find yourself slapped with a hefty fine,” Police Minister David Elliott said.
"The fact that people are still not complying is the reason why we have police out in full force enforcing these directions.
"This behaviour is not only reckless and stupid, but potentially deadly.”
Three staff members at a massage parlour on Sussex Street in Sydney were also fined $1000, and the owner fined $5000 for continuing to operate despite lockdowns ordering the store to close.
When announcing the rules on Wednesday, Mr Elliott said if people wanted to have house parties and flout the law, "we will legislate and we will enforce the law."
"If you don't need to be outside at the moment, don't go outside," he said.
Ms Berejiklian said she "strongly backed in" the tighter restrictions introduced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday night, which include closing food courts and beauty salons.
Matt Bungard is a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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