Australia news live: Bondi Junction attacker’s focus on women victims an ‘obvious’ area of interest for police, commissioner says

In other news, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck the south side of New Britain Region in Papau New Guinea.

The quake struck just before 9pm Sunday night in local time, with no indications of a Tsunami warning for Australia yet.

The PM was also asked about what the government could do on mental health, with Albanese conceding more can be done.

After details emerged over the weekend of the mental health issues suffered by the attacker, the PM was asked if there was enough funding for mental health services across the country:

Well, you could always do more, but we have had substantial investment in mental health, including in our last budget into mental health and suicide prevention systems in New South Wales.

It was evident there at Bondi Junction yesterday that the New South Wales Government Department of Health had early on people really identified as being able to provide support for people, and I thought that was a real indication of how on top of things the New South Wales administration was, which, under the circumstances, is quite remarkable, entirely appropriate.

Albanese on Bondi attacker’s motive: ‘The gender breakdown is of course concerning’

I just wanted to go back to the PM’s appearance on ABC radio earlier, where he was asked what he thought of the motive behind the attack.

Footage circulating on social media show the attacker seemingly targeting women and children, with Anthony Albanese saying the gender breakdown among the victims was “concerning”.

NSW police have said they’re looking at that as part of the investigation.

The gender breakdown is of course concerning.

All of that investigation will take place, it will be comprehensive, and nothing will not be looked at in this matter.

Webb says she is unsure when the shopping centre will reopen:

We’re working with Westfield. As I said, we handed back the crime scene last night. But it spread over seven floors at Westfield. It will take some time to prepare the stores for reopening. No doubt there’s some work to be done with stakeholders inside the Westfield, in terms of their own reaction and trauma to what has happened. So, that will be done very carefully, no doubt.

Webb is then asked about motive, with videos circulating online showing Cauchi avoiding men and deliberately targeting women and children.

Webb said the videos “speak for themselves” and that police are investigating that line of inquiry:

The videos speak for themselves, don’t they?

That’s certainly a line of inquiry for us. It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that seems to be an area of interest that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.

As you know, and has been reported, five of the deceased are women. And the majority of victims in hospital are also women. We don’t know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that’s why it’s important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him, were around him and close to him. So we can get some insight into what he might have been thinking. We won’t know necessarily. But we have to take a judgement from those who know him.

Webb on officer Amy Scott: ‘We’re trained to do this, but we’re not often faced with it’

Webb was asked how inspector Amy Scott, the officer who shot and killed Joel Cauchi, has been handling the fallout:

She’s doing OK. I have spoken to her. She’s just spending some time with her family at present. A bit of privacy to work through what has been, you know, very traumatic matter for her.

She’s an experienced officer. I have known Amy for many years. She’s operational her whole career.

We’re trained to do this, but we’re not often faced with it. So she’ll be processing all of that and she will be formally interviewed by the detectives tomorrow.

Webb says baby in stable condition after Bondi attack

NSW police commissioner Karen Webb told ABC News Breakfast that the baby in hospital after the Bondi attack is currently in a stable condition.

Webb said police were working through the mountain of evidence collected from the scene and from witnesses.

Overnight NSW police handed back the crime scene to Westfield shopping centre. But we’re working on … when they may return to business.

NSW police seized many, many exhibits from that crime scene. The job ahead of us now is to examine all those exhibits, as part of the evidence. Detectives will focus on interviewing family of the deceased, which will be a very slow methodical process. Because they’re all in trauma, as you can well imagine.

They’ll interview the witnesses from other places that have come forward. Overnight, 50 additional witnesses have come forward with information.

Anthony Albanese: ‘People ran towards danger in order to help their fellow Australians’

Anthony Albanese was also on ABC radio earlier, where he said it was “remarkable” that people were brave enough to rush attacker Joel Cauchi on Saturday.

The prime minister said he spoke to many people yesterday when he visited Bondi Junction to pay respects and lay flowers at the scene, and what struck him was the bravery of some of the witnesses.

It is remarkable that people ran towards danger in order to help their fellow Australians, not the least of which of course was police inspector Amy Scott.

The PM was also asked if the media had jumped to conclusions on the motive behind the attack, but he backed police process:

The police did an extraordinary job of giving out information to the public as soon as it was appropriate to do so. The fact that yesterday morning, it was released that Mr Cauchi had known mental health issues. The fact that very early on, they … [revealed that] they thought that it was not a terrorism related incident was very important, I think, for the public.

Police found nothing ‘startling’ in storage facility Joel Cauchi rented, Karen Webb says

NSW police commissioner Karen Webb was on ABC radio earlier, saying police had finished taking physical evidence from the scene and had handed the shopping centre back to its owners.

Webb said there were many pieces of evidence taken from the centre and that investigations continue:

There have been many, many exhibits that have been taken from that scene for forensic analysis.

Certainly police will go through that and take everything in it for forensic examination.

She said police had not found anything “startling” in a small storage facility that the attacker Joel Cauchi had rented. She also said police were investigating whether Cauchi was affected by drugs at the time of the attack.

It will be investigated as part of the coroner’s investigation in terms of any toxicology. Usually, those results are some days and weeks away.

We may never get answers because we can’t ask him and it will be based on what we can determine from interviewing witnesses and family members.

Chris Minns: ‘There’s good people out there too’

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, is on ABC News Breakfast, saying it is a “devastating day” across the state and a “reflectful time” in Sydney.

Minns was asked how he intends to bring the state together and he said he would encourage people to focus on the “heroic acts of bravery” on Saturday:

I would just encourage people in the face of such extreme violence and really confronting images to look at some of the heroic acts of bravery from completely strangers that we did see … in Bondi.

Whether it was some young men who confronted him with bollards and chairs, keeping him away from people he could have killed.

The actions of inspector Amy Scott who ran towards the attacker, without any question, saved many lives. There’s no hiding the truth, it’s been a horrible event, but some wonderful people in our community. If you’re talking to young people in particular, I would put it in context, let them know there’s good people out there too.

Plibersek: ‘We’re all just reeling, in shock and grieving’

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, says Australians are “still reeling” from the Bondi Junction stabbing attack.

Plibersek told Sunrise that the government’s focus was on the victims and their families and friends:

We’re all just reeling, in shock and grieving and I think there will be plenty of time to methodically go through what happened on the weekend and see if there are things that we can learn about how to make sure that people feel safe and are safe in places where they should be safe.

I’m sure [they] will be impacted, probably for the rest of their lives, by what’s happened.

The focus on what we can learn from this, absolutely, we should do that in the future. There’ll be plenty of time for that.

Good morning. Mostafa Rachwani with you today and we begin with the continuing fallout from Saturday’s tragic stabbing attack at Bondi Junction in Sydney.

Flags at government buildings are due to fly at half mast today in a national sign of mourning for the victims, after Joel Cauchi, 40, stabbed six people to death and seriously wounded 12 others on Saturday afternoon at Bondi Junction Westfield.

Inspector Amy Scott, who shot and killed Cauchi, was praised by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who also insisted Australia’s strong gun laws saved many lives.

Eight people were in hospital last night after the attack, including a man and a woman in intensive care at St Vincent’s hospital. We will bring you updates on their conditions as it comes in.