Sussan Ley endorses Gisele Kapterian over Warren Mundine – as it happened

Key events
What we learned today, Wednesday 15 January
This is where we’ll leave you for today, thanks for joining us on the blog! Here’s a recap of the main stories:
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Thousands of commuters across Sydney have been affected by major rail delays and cancellations caused by industrial action.
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The NSW government says balls that mysteriously appeared on Sydney’s northern beaches are still “a bit of a mystery” but there’s an ongoing investigation by the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.
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Anthony Albanese says the Australian government will take the “strongest possible action” if any harm has been caused to Australian man Oscar Jenkins, who was captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine.
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Australia’s special envoy for antisemitism, Jillian Segal, is calling for a national cabinet meeting on antisemitism, while the Labor MP Josh Burns says there are “clearly gaps” in Australia’s legal framework around the issue.
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There are severe weather warnings in place across parts of NSW, the ACT and Victoria, with roads and homes already damaged, and power outages in some areas.
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The children’s television legend Simon Townsend of Wonder World fame has sadly died, aged 79.
The blog will be back early tomorrow. Take care.
Sussan Ley endorses Gisele Kapterian over Warren Mundine
Sarah Basford Canales
The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has endorsed Gisele Kapterian in the preselection race for the federal seat Bradfield, saying the former Liberal staffer gives the opposition its “greatest chance of success”.
Kapterian is facing Warren Mundine, the face of the anti-voice campaign and the conservative faction’s frontrunner, for the marginal seat in Sydney’s north.
Ley joins the former treasurer Joe Hockey in endorsing Kapterian, who Liberal sources described to Guardian Australia last week as “centrist”.
Ley says Kapterian is “familiar with the systems of government” and has “real-world experience” from her roles in the private sector.
Ley says:
In Gisele, the people of Bradfield would find a Federal MP who isn’t just a community champion capable of advocating on their local issues, but also more than able to serve in future high office …
Warren Mundine is an ideological powerhouse in our party and as was demonstrated during the Voice referendum, he is a strong and persuasive communicator.
Our federal parliamentary party would be bolstered by Warren’s contribution and I was an enthusiastic supporter of his efforts in Gilmore at the 2019 election.
However, at this critical juncture, it is my judgement that Gisele Kapterian represents the future of Bradfield. I believe she affords us the greatest chance of success in what will be an extremely closely-contested marginal seat, where the Teal machine could potentially pour millions of dollars into trying to unseat us.
Gisele is the right candidate for Bradfield at the right moment and I urge preselectors to support her.
Peak retail bodies call for government and industry collaboration on worker safety
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and National Retail Association (NRA) say they are deeply concerned by an alleged stabbing attack at a Queensland Coles.
In a statement they say:
The ARA and NRA continue to call for strengthened safety measures to protect retail workers amidst a concerning wave of violence in retail settings, with around 700,000 retail crime incidents recorded nationally in the past year.
We fully support retailers who are taking initiatives to improve safety for staff and commend Coles for taking swift action in response to the recent incident in QLD.
Police arrest 75-year-old ‘knitting nanna’
Police have arrested a 75-year-old woman who they say was allegedly attached to heavy machinery in the Gladstone state forest at Bowraville, on the NSW mid north coast.
She has been charged with four offences including remaining on a prescribed premises without lawful excuse.
Police say the woman from Coffs Harbour is due to appear in Macksville local court on 23 January.
The activist group Knitting Nannas says it was one of their members who was arrested.
Injuries reported after truck rollover in Tasmania
Police have confirmed emergency services are at the scene of a truck rollover on the East Tamar Highway at Long Reach in Tasmania’s north.
Police say injuries have been reported, and motorists are being asked to avoid the area.
Traffic is being diverted on to Dalrymple Road through to Bridport Road. The road will be closed while the truck is removed from the scene.
Man fighting for life after Melbourne shop torched
A man is fighting for life after a shop was set on fire in an early morning arson attack, AAP reports.
The 51-year-old was found critically injured after several men were seen pouring accelerant inside the building on Chapel Street in Melbourne’s Prahran before it was set alight about 4.15am.
The group then fled in a waiting vehicle, with one of the group visibly on fire.
No one else was inside the building at the time.
The store was extensively damaged in the blaze, which also damaged surrounding businesses.
Less than an hour later, emergency services were called to an address in Fitzroy after reports of a man with significant burns to his body.
The injured man was taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
A crime scene has been established at the Chapel Street site and an arson chemist will attend the scene on Wednesday afternoon.
No charges have been laid.
Four injured as demountable huts flip in Wagga Wagga
Four men have been taken to the Wagga Wagga base hospital with injuries after demountable huts they were camping in flipped in high winds.
A NSW ambulance spokesperson says two of the men sustained injuries including shoulder, leg and back injuries, while the other two men have minor injuries.
The NSW SES has issued a Watch and Act warning for the area, advising residents to stay indoors.
They believe there are now widespread outages in the Riverina area.
Heavy rain, flash flooding, hail and damaging winds are expected to continue in the area this afternoon.
Three charged after ‘sophisticated’ Brisbane armed robbery by people wearing Santa hats

Joe Hinchliffe
Three men have been charged after they allegedly posed as cleaners, donned fake beards and Santa hats, entered a home on Brisbane’s southern fringes at gunpoint and stole more than $1m in cash as well as high-end jewellery.
Acting Det Insp Justin Anderson said on Wednesday that the perpetrators used zip ties to restrain their three victims in a highly planned armed robbery that was one of the “most sophisticated” he had seen in more than 30 years of policing.
Anderson said the alleged perpetrators scoped the address, planned the heist for at least a week and phoned in advance to make sure the occupants were home. Once inside, he said they remained for “a significant amount of time” during which they threatened their victims with handguns for the mixed currencies and luxury watches.
Officers will allege the robbery took place on the afternoon of 3 January. On 13 January police raided a Greenbank property, two cars and several Ormeau storage units where they say they recovered stolen cash, illicit drugs and two rifles – one with a silencer.
A 33-year-old Coomera man, a 39-year-old Ormeau man and 28-year-old Greenbank man were arrested and later charged with three counts each of armed robbery in company with personal violence and deprivation of liberty, and one count each of entering a dwelling with intent and hacking gain benefit commit indictable offence.

Caitlin Cassidy
Balls on Sydney’s northern beaches still a ‘bit of a mystery’
Sydney’s beaches have been plagued by mysterious balls for more than three months but the public is no closer to finding out where they came from or why they continue to wash ashore.
Addressing the media on Wednesday afternoon, NSW’s acting premier, Penny Sharpe, said the foul-smelling balls, which temporarily closed nine beaches in the city’s north this week, remained a “bit of a mystery”.
Sharpe confirmed an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation was ongoing, while the government had also been working with various agencies on whether there had been “pollution events” – none of which had been identified.
This is a phenomenon that’s not being seen anywhere else in the world. There is the testing that has been done, and it’s been very extensive, so we know what the balls are made of but they’re different depending on the beach.
I have full confidence in the EPA doing their work. They’re doing the testing. They’re working with other agencies to try to get to the bottom of it. We don’t have an answer yet, but I’m not going to put the blame at the feet of the EPA here. This is an odd situation that remains a mystery that we’re getting to the bottom of.
Asked if she had a preferred term for the balls, which have been called everything from fatbergs to tar balls, she replied: “I think we’re going with debris balls. That’s where I’m at today.”

Adeshola Ore
Further Mornington Peninsula landslide fears with 11 houses now uninhabitable
Victoria’s emergency services are bracing for further movement in a landslide on the state’s Mornington Peninsula ahead of expected storms.
Yesterday morning, a $2.3m house collapsed down a cliff in a landslide. A council worker who was injured in the incident was transported to hospital in a stable condition.
A VicEmergency alert issued this morning for the McCrae area said site assessments would continue, along with monitoring for further impact caused by forecast storms.
You can read the full story here:
Man dies after trying to save children from rip at WA beach
Western Australian police have confirmed a man has died after he and three others went to help two children experiencing trouble in the water at Native Dog beach in Bremer Bay.
They believe the children and those who tried to help them were all caught in a rip.
Police say the man, believed to be in his 40s, became unresponsive and was carried to shore, where members of the public provided him emergency first aid.
In a statement, police say:
St John WA transported the man to the Bremer Bay Nursing Post, however he could not be revived.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.
All other persons in the water were able to get back to shore safely.
Commuters waiting for trains from Central station
Industrial action has led to the cancellation of almost 400 Sydney train services today.
Here are some photos from Central station in Sydney:

Natasha May
Following from our last post:
Questions at the press conference then turned to the actual numbers of how many psychiatrists will be left in the workforce when resignations take effect.
Jackson says there are 443 full-time psychiatrist positions in NSW, of which there is already a 30% pre-exiting vacancy rate.
On top of that, they have received 205 resignations.

Natasha May
NSW government to meet psychiatrist representative bodies
The NSW government will meet tomorrow with representative bodies of psychiatrists as half the workforce intends to resign next week.
In a press conference held this afternoon, the minister for mental health, Rose Jackson, said she would meet tomorrow with the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation as well as the peak body for psychiatrists, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
Jackson says:
I’m hopeful the meeting is … an opportunity for discussion, an opportunity for a path forward.
We get there are things we need to discuss and the system is under pressure.
… Walking away and not participating is not a solution.