It was reasonable for Lisa Wilkinson to retain separate lawyers to represent her in a defamation trial brought against Network Ten and its high-profile presenter, the federal court has ruled.

“This is not a case where Ms Wilkinson acted unthinkingly in retaining separate representation,” Justice Michael Lee said on Wednesday.

“In any event, it seems to me plain beyond peradventure that in all circumstances it was reasonable for Ms Wilkinson to retain separate lawyers.”

The former Project presenter filed a cross-claim against Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.

Wilkinson and Ten are co-respondents in the case in which Lehrmann says he was defamed by a rape allegation made by Higgins on Ten’s The Project. Lehrmann was not named but says he was identifiable.

Wilkinson hired her own barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, to represent her legal interests in the defamation trial after losing faith in her employers.

“That was my primary concern and it was becoming increasingly obvious to me that my concerns were different to Network Ten’s,” she told the court on Tuesday.

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Before Justice Lee delivered his decision, Network Ten silk Robert Dick SC said the broadcaster no longer argued Wilkinson could not retain her own legal team but it did take issue with the scope of the costs.

The exact amount Ten has to pay will be determined after the judgement is delivered in the case brought by Lehrmann, which could come as early as next month.

Michael Elliot SC, for Wilkinson, said his client had been “vindicated” by the “capitulation” by Ten at the 11th hour.

“We say that what Ten has done today is to retreat to the position it actually had on the 24th of March,” Elliott said.

“This is not just a capitulation, it’s an embarrassment, under which we have been led on a merry dance right back to where we started almost a year ago.”

Justice Lee said it was “entirely unexpected” that he had to rule on a cross-claim in the defamation trial and it had given him “some insight into how the sausage has been made”.

Letters, emails, texts and legal advice between Ten and Wilkinson’s legal teams have been laid bare in the federal court, including that the network had cleared Wilkinson’s Logies speech as “all good” and “OK” but failed to reveal that publicly.

Network Ten’s head of litigation, Tasha Smithies, agreed with Justice Lee when he asked her if she understood that Wilkinson was relying on her “to warn her if there were any risks associated with the speech?”.

“You, as a solicitor, thought that that was appropriate to occur by a crown witness eight days before a criminal trial of a man who’s facing a criminal, a serious criminal charge?” Lee asked.

“I think given all the circumstances available, that that was the preferred course to her not giving a speech,” Smithies answered.

“Thank you,’’ Justice Lee said.

Justice Lee said one of the “certain complications along the way” in the cross-claim included an objection by lawyers for Higgins to the retention of Chrysanthou by Wilkinson.

He said a letter to Network Ten’s external lawyer Marlia Saunders from Higgins’ lawyer, Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler, saying he wouldn’t work with Chrysanthou was “quite extraordinary”.

“For the avoidance of any other misunderstandings, Brittany has instructed me not to assist lawyers and Counsel currently retained by Lisa Wilkinson to defend civil claims commenced by Lehrmann against Lisa Wilkinson,” Zwier said in the letter filed in the federal court. “I am not prepared to work with Lisa’s current senior Counsel, under any circumstances.”

Justice Lee said if he had received such a letter when he was a solicitor he would have replied “How dare you say who can represent my client?”.

Ten executive vice-president Beverley McGarvey sent Wilkinson a list of “suitable” legal representatives.

Justice Lee accepted that Wilkinson had taken legal advice on her Logies speech and agreed it was “a very different scenario from self indulgently getting up and saying what’s on top of their head”, as he had initially thought.

There are “significant credit issues” with both Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins in the defamation case the former Liberal staffer brought against Network Ten and its presenter Lisa Wilkinson, Justice Michael Lee has told the federal court.

“There are a number of significant differences they’ve given in court, a number of in-court representations and out-of-court representations,” Justice Lee said of the two principal witnesses.

The federal court judge is in the final stages of writing his judgment in the Lehrmann defamation case and will deliver his findings in March or April, he revealed on Wednesday.

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Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins on The Project in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.

Lehrmann maintains his innocence and at his criminal trial pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.

After his criminal trial was aborted in December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.

Justice Lee made the remarks about the matter of “credit” during a two-day hearing of a cross-claim for legal fees made by Wilkinson against her employer Network Ten.

Justice Lee said he would deliver his judgment in the cross-claim on whether Ten has to pay Wilkinson’s legal fees of more than $700,000 by the end of Wednesday, so that he can return to the “main game” of the defamation judgment.

He asked the legal teams to think carefully about the issue of credit in their final submissions.

“You have to be careful … when you’re making credit findings, working out, if there are general credit problems with witnesses, what parts of their evidence you can believe,” Lee said. “Hence, credit is particularly important in this case.”

“So I just want to give everyone a chance to deal with anything they want to say concerning the issue of credit.”

Justice Lee raised the example of credit in relation to Higgins’ evidence in her personal injury claim for compensation from the commonwealth.

Higgins received $2.3m in compensation, but after legal fees and taxes were taken out she got $1.9m, she told the court in December.

Higgins gave “a whole series of representations” under oath about liability “which are in contrast to the evidence that she’s given in some respects”, he said.

“In relation to the principal issue, it is clear that there are significant credit issues in relation to the two principal witnesses … certainly Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins,” he said.

Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Wilkinson, told the court her client has been a journalist for 40 years but has never been a news reporter or a court reporter, and has never been sued for defamation.

The court has heard Wilkinson relied on Ten for legal advice on whether or not to give an acceptance speech at the 2022 Logies, in which she referenced Higgins’ allegations.

Wilkinson earlier told the court she felt “alone” and unsupported by Network Ten as her reputation was being “trashed in the media” after the speech because it led to the delay of Lehrmann’s criminal trial.

“It’s hard to imagine any occasion where my client would have had to consider making a comment on judicial proceedings,” Chrysanthou said. “And I think the evidence was she’d never been sued for defamation before, so had very little information or knowledge about that.”

The Australian’s columnist Janet Albrechtsen was not an “advocate” for Bruce Lehrmann who “infected” the head of an inquiry into his prosecution with bias, a court has heard.

Albrechtsen’s 273 communications with Walter Sofronoff, including a private lunch in Brisbane, are at the centre of a legal challenge by the former ACT director of prosecution Shane Drumgold, who wants to quash the inquiry’s adverse findings against him.

Drumgold’s lawyer, Dan O’Gorman, has told the ACT supreme court that Albrechtsen was an advocate for Lehrmann who was writing “nasty” articles about his client’s performance while maintaining regular contact with Sofronoff.

O’Gorman claimed Sofronoff’s “extensive communication” with Albrechtsen during the inquiry may lead to a reasonable observer to perceive bias that could result in him dealing with matters beyond their “legal and factual merits”.

But Kate Eastman, a lawyer representing the ACT government, which is a party to proceedings, said that claim was based on assumptions that had not been proved.

“Your honour should not accept that there’s any proper basis for finding that Ms Albrechtsen could be characterised as an advocate,” Eastman told Justice Stephen Kaye.

“There is no evidence, or, in our respectful submission, any proper basis to infer or make a finding that Mr Sofronoff read any of the articles … was aware of those articles, or had any knowledge, either at the commencement of his inquiry or during the course of his inquiry, in respect of Ms Albrechtsen’s bias.”

Eastman did not dispute that Albrechtsen had written extensively about Lehrmann and Drumgold, but said it was not clear this had any effect on Sofronoff’s conduct.

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The former judge spent seven-and-a-half hours on the phone to The Australian newspaper during the probe, most of which were with Albrechtsen.

The counsel for the board of inquiry, Brendan Lim, said Sofronoff discussed practical matters about the inquiry with Albrechtsen, including when documents would become available.

“He engaged with any journalist who approached him with legitimate requests for information and explains that Ms Albrechtsen was the most persistent of the journalists, but that did not reflect preferential treatment on his part,” Lim said.

“The fact that Ms Albrechtsen asked more questions that other journalists is really beside the point.”

Sofronoff’s report made “several serious findings of misconduct” against Drumgold, saying he “at times … lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment” throughout Lehrmann’s prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and a second trial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.

Drumgold’s legal team argued he was denied procedural fairness and an opportunity to respond to some adverse findings, including the finding that he “preyed on the junior lawyer’s inexperience” to “deliberately advance a false claim of legal professional privilege”.

Another lawyer for the ACT government, Alison Hammond, rejected this claim and said that while the word “prey” was not specifically put to Drumgold, the substance of the finding was.

Drumgold’s legal team also highlighted a text message Sofronoff sent to Albrechtsen shortly before inquiry hearings began in May, arguing it proved his mind was already “poisoned” against the prosecutor.

“What a thing to do to two young professionals under your mentorship,” the message to Albrechtsen said, in reference to witness statements provided by Drumgold’s junior staff involved in the Lehrmann trial.

Justin Greggery, a lawyer for six police officers listed as defendants, said that text message was “not a contentious view” and that Sofronoff was “simply stating the obvious” to a journalist in an attempt to assist accurate reporting.

“To read into it as though there is a willingness to secretly share confidential information – or a confidential state of mind – involves a review of this message not from a fair minded observer, but from a suspicious mind,” Greggery said.

The hearing continues.

Lisa Wilkinson felt “alone” and unsupported by Network Ten as her reputation was being “trashed in the media”, the veteran TV presenter has told the federal court.

The former Project presenter has also revealed Ten executives pulled her off air after her Logies speech was criticised as reckless.

“I was shocked, embarrassed and deeply disappointed by [Ten CEO Beverley] McGarvey’s decision to remove me from The Project,” Wilkinson said in an affidavit.

“At that time, my most recent contract as co-host of The Project had only been signed 11 months before and still had more than two years to run.”

She said she found out from her agent that Ten was doing a “rebrand” and she was off the panel due to “brand damage”.

Wilkinson said she was promised an interview series but nothing has yet eventuated.

The former Project presenter was heavily criticised in the media for an acceptance speech she gave at the Logies in 2022 for a TV report about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.

The speech led to the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann in the ACT supreme court for the alleged sexual assault of Higgins being delayed by three months.

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Wilkinson was cross-examined on Tuesday in her cross-claim against Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Lehrmann defamation case.

She said Ten failed to make it clear publicly that her Logies speech was approved by senior executives at Ten and the network’s legal team.

“They approved that speech at the highest levels of the network,” Wilkinson said.

“All of them had approved the speech, but I was the one that was accused in this Daily Mail headline, me alone, of derailing the rape case.”

Wilkinson told the court she asked Ten to make it clear to the public that they had fully supported her in making the speech because was being unfairly portrayed in the media as “legally irresponsible”.

“It signified to me that Ten had no real interest in publicly correcting any of the damage done to me and my reputation, and were now only making it worse,” she said.

“I felt the decision would indicate to the public that I had in fact done something wrong. I knew that the story of me leaving The Project would result in a continuation of significant and humiliating headlines.”

Wilkinson told the court she lost faith in Ten’s ability to represent her legal interests so she hired her own legal team.

Wilkinson said she was not confident Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, would represent her best interests adequately given he had criticised her on television for giving the Logies speech.

She said she repeatedly asked Ten to support her publicly and to say that she had not been warned by former the ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold not to make the Logies speech.

“If Mr Drumgold had told me not to give the speech, I would have followed that advice,’’ Wilkinson said in her affidavit.

Ten has rejected Wilkinson’s claim for legal fees and has told the court there is “no objective reason which required Ms Wilkinson to engage separate legal representation in this matter”.

Network Ten’s head of litigation Tasha Smithies denied her advice that the Logies speech was “OK” had exposed Wilkinson to public criticism.

She also defended the network’s decision not to reveal the nature of the advice until now, even though it was damaging to Wilkinson’s reputation.

The network’s barrister, Robert Dick, SC, told Justice Lee Ten did not accept the legal advice it gave Wilkinson was “completely inappropriate”.

Lee asked: “Does Channel Ten say…the advice that was given was anything other than completely inappropriate?”

Dick replied: “No we don’t accept that it was completely inappropriate.”

Dick said Ten accepted that ultimately it “gave rise to a real risk of contempt, and it was unfortunate”.

Earlier, Justice Michael Lee said the judgment in the Lehrmann defamation trial was nearing completion and would be delivered in March.

Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins on The Project in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.

Lehrmann, who is in court for the cross-claim, maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.

After the trial was aborted in December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

Victoria police say there are “some suspicions” in the disappearance of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy after she vanished 10 days ago.

The 51-year-old was last seen on Sunday 4 February, and little new information has emerged since then. She told friends she was planning a 14-kilometre run through the nearby Woowookarung regional park but did not attend a planned brunch that morning.

The police commissioner, Shane Patton, on Wednesday said Murphy’s disappearance was “suspicious” but there were no new developments in the investigation.

“When someone’s been missing for this period of time, we have no trace, well clearly there must be some suspicions there because we haven’t been able to locate her,” he said.

Patton said it was “certainly unusual” that police had not been able to “locate any trace of her or any other evidence” since she was last seen.

“It’s suspicious, whether that means there’s foul play involved, or not, I don’t know, but obviously detectives are investigating a matter where a woman’s been missing for a significant period of time,” he said.

Police had previously said they were not treating Murphy’s disappearance as suspicious. Last week, police announced that the missing persons squad would take over as lead investigators.

Murphy’s disappearance came about a year after Sissy Austin, a former Greens Senate candidate, was attacked while running in the vicinity near where Murphy vanished last week.

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Austin was brutally bashed by a man while running along a motorcycle track in the Lal Lal state forest, about 20km from where Murphy had planned to run, on 11 February 2023.

Her attacker has never been found. Police said the man, who knocked Austin unconscious with a rock tied to a stick, was believed to be Caucasian, wearing black jeans, a cap and no shoes or shirt.

After Austin regained consciousness, she ran 4km back to her car and called the police. At the time, police combed through the area looking for the weapon and said they were looking for dashcam footage and vehicles that were out of place. They also said they would ramp up patrols in the local area as an added safety measure.

Austin told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that police were yet to speak to her about the missing person investigation into Murphy but that she would help if approached.

“My reason for having a voice in this is hoping that my story can help find Samantha,” she said.

Austin said she wanted to understand what stage the police investigation into her attack had reached.

In response to questions from Guardian Australia about Austin’s case, police said it was an “ongoing assault investigation”.

Austin, who last week joined the ground search for Murphy, said the disappearance had caused “angst” in the community, particularly for the running community.

“Everyone is on edge,” she said.

The former Victorian homicide detective Charlie Bezzina told the ABC on Tuesday he would be looking into the investigation file of Austin if he was on the case.

“Did they have suspects? Let’s start re-interviewing these suspects, let’s get them alibied.”

Murphy, 51, was last seen on Sunday, 4 February when she left her Ballarat East home at about 7am. She had told friends she was planning a 14-kilometre run through the nearby Woowookarung regional park. Her family sounded the alarm when she did not attend a brunch at 11am.

A CCTV camera in the family’s driveway captured Murphy outside her home at 7am on 4 February, wearing a purple running singlet and black leggings.

On Saturday, police scaled back the official ground search for Murphy but said the investigation continued.

Police last week widened their appeal for dashcam and CCTV footage that could assist the investigation.

Education experts say “alarm bells” should be ringing for state and federal governments after data revealed the percentage of children enrolled in public education has fallen to a record low.

The annual schools data, released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), found the proportion of students enrolled in government schools has dropped by four percentage points in two decades, from about 68% in 2002 to 64% last year.

There were 2,614,094 students enrolled in government schools in 2023, representing a total increase of just 0.7% in the past five years.

During the same time period, independent schools recorded an increase of 14.1%, while Catholic school enrolments grew by 4.8%.

Pasi Sahlberg, professor of educational leadership at the University of Melbourne, said the data reminded him of the “boiling frog apologue”.

“If a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if it’s put in tepid water which is brought to a boil slowly, it won’t perceive the danger and will be cooked to death,” he said.

“Australia’s market-driven education landscape … has made our schools’ education one of the most segregated in the developed world.

“A larger proportion of students enrol in nongovernment schools in Australia than most other OECD countries.”

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Sahlberg said the system of “choice” was also tied up with the image that government schools were plagued by teacher shortages, poor infrastructure and chronic underfunding.

“The status of government schools in reports is leading more parents to think private schools have better educational facilities and staff,” he said.

Victoria and Western Australia were the only states and territories where enrolments in public schools grew compared with last year, while Tasmania and the Northern Territory recorded the largest falls.

Nick Parkinson, senior associate in education at the Grattan Institute, said of the 140,000 additional students who entered schools in the past five years, nearly 120,000 were privately educated.

“The long-term trend should be ringing alarm bells – public education should be a competitive option,” he said.

“It raises some important questions for governments. I’d be asking how can we make sure our schools are seen as a really attractive option for families?

“We want to make sure our state-funded schools offer a world-class education that’s competitive with fee paying options.”

Nongovernment schools now represent 36% of the total cohort, with the largest growth experienced in Queensland, the ACT, Western Australia and New South Wales.

Margery Evans, the chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools NSW, said independent schools had enrolled 60% of all new students since 2000.

“This is remarkable given that independent schools are just 16% of NSW schools,” she said.

Evans said the largest growth cohorts were for low and mid-fee Anglican, Islamic and Christian schools in fast-growing Sydney outer suburbs.

“There are practical considerations as well – 70% of independent schools are combined primary and secondary schools in a co-educational environment, which more families want for their child,” she said.

The data also showed retention rates were continuing to decline since the pandemic, largely due to a drop-off in the government sector.

The proportion of students remaining in the schooling system through to year 12 fell to 79.1% in 2023, down from 80.5% in 2022.

While retention rates remained stable for independent schools (94.3%) and Catholic schools (81.1%), just 73.6% of students in public education completed year 12 in 2023.

It was a 2.4% drop from the previous year (76%) and a fall of almost 10% prior to the pandemic in 2019 (82.2%).

Sahlberg said it was crucial to find new ways to make school “attractive, inspiring and interesting places” for all students, especially those in higher year levels.

“We need to co-create a new purpose of school education not be limited to test scores and exam results,” he said. “To give more students better reasons to come to school and perceive it as their happy place.”

The ACT had the highest retention rate at 89.2%, while the NT was lowest at 51.7%.

Australia’s capital is the only state or territory where all public schools are fully funded to 100% of the schooling resource standard, while the NT will never reach it on its current trajectory.

There were 265,935 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in Australian schools, the data showed, a 3.6% increase compared with 2022.

Four in five (81.8%) First Nations students were enrolled in government schools.

In healthy news for the sector, the number of people working in schools kept pace with increased enrolments, despite ongoing concerns over teaching shortages.

An additional 44,486 students entered the schooling system compared with last year, however the student-to-teaching-staff ratio remained unchanged at 13.1 students to one teacher.

There were 311,655 full-time equivalent teaching staff in schools in 2023, an increase of 1.4% from the previous year.

A dairy farmer is dead, homes have been lost and nearly 135,000 customers remain without power after bushfires and storms ravaged Victoria.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, confirmed a 50-year-old man died when storms hit the South Gippsland region, in the state’s east, on Tuesday night. She expressed her condolences to his family and first responders.

The 50-year-old was found dead at a Darlimurla property. WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the incident.

“The death is the second confirmed workplace fatality for 2024. There were nine work-related deaths at the same time last year,” they said.

Police said the man was working on the property when he was struck by debris. They said they would prepare a report for the coroner.

It came as bushfires burn in western Victoria, where authorities were trying to confirm how many homes have been lost, and electricity outages continue in parts of the state.

As of 4pm Wednesday, 134,952 homes and businesses were without power across the state, the majority – 108,415 – located in eastern Victoria, according to a state government update.

Some 3,104 customers that remain without electricity have been described as “power dependent” due to needing energy for life support or other medical reasons.

Hundreds of phone towers were also down across the Optus and Telstra networks, while about 148,000 NBN customers have no internet.

The government also confirmed there were “major widespread telecommunications issues” due to the outages, which affected triple zero, particularly in Gippsland, but most had been resolved by 9.30am Wednesday.

About 80 schools and early childhood services in central and western Victoria, as well as in Melbourne’s south-east, were closed as a result of the power outages, as well as accessibility, sewage and water issues. It remains unclear which schools will reopen on Thursday.

Some train services also remain affected, with buses replacing trains on the Belgrave line in Melbourne and on the V/Line service between Traralgon and Bairnsdale.

Outages also affected the Wonthaggi hospital and Phillip Island health hub, with surgeries cancelled for patients. Cancer and haemodialysis services, pathology and emergency dental appointments were cancelled.

In a statement, operator Bass Coast Health said visitors could still visit loved ones in the health care centres.

“All services except for theatre are operating,” they said. “Our emergency department at Wonthaggi Hospital and urgent care centres at Cowes remain open for people who are unwell.”

The government confirmed health services in Bairnsalde, Gippsland, Yarram and Yea were also affected by the outages. It said all remained on backup generators and that was expected to last three to five days.

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Allan said the catastrophic bushfire risk declared on Tuesday was downgraded to extreme on Wednesday morning.

“To give it some context, yesterday was only the second day since the fires of Black Saturday in 2009, 15 years ago, that had that catastrophic rating” she said. Fire crews battled to control the bushfires overnight.

A spokesperson for VicEmergency said the State Emergency Service had 124 of its 150 units deployed in recovery efforts.

“SES has had approximately 3900 requests across the state for volunteer assistance since 9:00am 13 February. Approximately 600 of those requests have related to building damage,” they said.

Fire crews were on Wednesday assessing the impact that a blaze near the Grampians national park has had on Pomonal. The premier visited the nearby incident control centre in Horsham in the afternoon for a briefing and a flyover of the affected areas.

Homes, hostels and business were evacuated across the region. But 750 metres from the Grampians national park, Aidan Banfield said he was “really confident” about staying to defend his camping and caravan parkland.

“Beyond a certain size or property, people have a lot of [firefighting] equipment, particularly big farmers. They’ve been on the land for a long time and have a lot of experience,” he said.

“The classic pitch you see … is a little hose fighting fires, and that happens. But there’s definitely others that have really significant power.”

Banfield said having lived through the 2006 Mount Lubra fires helped prepare himself and other residents to fight future fires.

The fire threat has eased in the Mount Stapylton and Bellfield areas in the Grampians national park after residents were told seek shelter on Tuesday afternoon.

Conditions were also better on Wednesday around a bushfire at Newtown near Ballarat after residents were told to evacuate after a grassfire spread into a forest and morphed into a bushfire.

The transport department on Wednesday urged motorists to be patient and stay alert for hazards as storm damage had affected the road and transport network.

A number of bus replacement services were in place on Wednesday morning and the Western Highway remains closed between Horsham and Stawell.

Firefighters in burnover at Pomonal

Five country firefighters suffered minor injuries after their truck was involved in a burnover at a fire ground at Pomonal on Tuesday night.

The firefighters were pre-positioned in the town and tasked with protecting homes and critical infrastructure, said Chris Hardman, chief of Forest Fire Management Victoria.

“When the wind change came through, the fire moved very rapidly into Pomonal and those firefighters were caught between the fire front and the work they were doing in protecting communities,” Hardman told ABC News.

“We don’t have a full understanding of the fire front and the impact it’s had on the township, but it certainly has impacted sections of the Pomonal township and we’ve had some losses.”

Phillip Vaughan’s Australian native nursery in Pomonal was damaged by the fires, losing “significant” gardens and plants grown over the last four decades.

“We’re just trying to get the water back up and running so we can water the nursery,” he said.

Vaughan told Guardian Australia plants grown for the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show next month were damaged in the fire, including rare native grown for a show garden display.

“It will be interesting trying to replace [plants], but it’s the people who’ve lost their houses we’re more concerned about. We’ll soldier on. We can do a bit of replanting and do whatever we can do,” he said.

With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press

A dairy farmer is dead, homes have been lost and nearly 135,000 customers remain without power after bushfires and storms ravaged Victoria.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, confirmed a 50-year-old man died when storms hit the South Gippsland region, in the state’s east, on Tuesday night. She expressed her condolences to his family and first responders.

The 50-year-old was found dead at a Darlimurla property. WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the incident.

“The death is the second confirmed workplace fatality for 2024. There were nine work-related deaths at the same time last year,” they said.

Police said the man was working on the property when he was struck by debris. They said they would prepare a report for the coroner.

It came as bushfires burn in western Victoria, where authorities were trying to confirm how many homes have been lost, and electricity outages continue in parts of the state.

As of 4pm Wednesday, 134,952 homes and businesses were without power across the state, the majority – 108,415 – located in eastern Victoria, according to a state government update.

Some 3,104 customers that remain without electricity have been described as “power dependent” due to needing energy for life support or other medical reasons.

Hundreds of phone towers were also down across the Optus and Telstra networks, while about 148,000 NBN customers have no internet.

The government also confirmed there were “major widespread telecommunications issues” due to the outages, which affected triple zero, particularly in Gippsland, but most had been resolved by 9.30am Wednesday.

About 80 schools and early childhood services in central and western Victoria, as well as in Melbourne’s south-east, were closed as a result of the power outages, as well as accessibility, sewage and water issues. It remains unclear which schools will reopen on Thursday.

Some train services also remain affected, with buses replacing trains on the Belgrave line in Melbourne and on the V/Line service between Traralgon and Bairnsdale.

Outages also affected the Wonthaggi hospital and Phillip Island health hub, with surgeries cancelled for patients. Cancer and haemodialysis services, pathology and emergency dental appointments were cancelled.

In a statement, operator Bass Coast Health said visitors could still visit loved ones in the health care centres.

“All services except for theatre are operating,” they said. “Our emergency department at Wonthaggi Hospital and urgent care centres at Cowes remain open for people who are unwell.”

The government confirmed health services in Bairnsalde, Gippsland, Yarram and Yea were also affected by the outages. It said all remained on backup generators and that was expected to last three to five days.

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Allan said the catastrophic bushfire risk declared on Tuesday was downgraded to extreme on Wednesday morning.

“To give it some context, yesterday was only the second day since the fires of Black Saturday in 2009, 15 years ago, that had that catastrophic rating” she said. Fire crews battled to control the bushfires overnight.

A spokesperson for VicEmergency said the State Emergency Service had 124 of its 150 units deployed in recovery efforts.

“SES has had approximately 3900 requests across the state for volunteer assistance since 9:00am 13 February. Approximately 600 of those requests have related to building damage,” they said.

Fire crews were on Wednesday assessing the impact that a blaze near the Grampians national park has had on Pomonal. The premier visited the nearby incident control centre in Horsham in the afternoon for a briefing and a flyover of the affected areas.

Homes, hostels and business were evacuated across the region. But 750 metres from the Grampians national park, Aidan Banfield said he was “really confident” about staying to defend his camping and caravan parkland.

“Beyond a certain size or property, people have a lot of [firefighting] equipment, particularly big farmers. They’ve been on the land for a long time and have a lot of experience,” he said.

“The classic pitch you see … is a little hose fighting fires, and that happens. But there’s definitely others that have really significant power.”

Banfield said having lived through the 2006 Mount Lubra fires helped prepare himself and other residents to fight future fires.

The fire threat has eased in the Mount Stapylton and Bellfield areas in the Grampians national park after residents were told seek shelter on Tuesday afternoon.

Conditions were also better on Wednesday around a bushfire at Newtown near Ballarat after residents were told to evacuate after a grassfire spread into a forest and morphed into a bushfire.

The transport department on Wednesday urged motorists to be patient and stay alert for hazards as storm damage had affected the road and transport network.

A number of bus replacement services were in place on Wednesday morning and the Western Highway remains closed between Horsham and Stawell.

Firefighters in burnover at Pomonal

Five country firefighters suffered minor injuries after their truck was involved in a burnover at a fire ground at Pomonal on Tuesday night.

The firefighters were pre-positioned in the town and tasked with protecting homes and critical infrastructure, said Chris Hardman, chief of Forest Fire Management Victoria.

“When the wind change came through, the fire moved very rapidly into Pomonal and those firefighters were caught between the fire front and the work they were doing in protecting communities,” Hardman told ABC News.

“We don’t have a full understanding of the fire front and the impact it’s had on the township, but it certainly has impacted sections of the Pomonal township and we’ve had some losses.”

Phillip Vaughan’s Australian native nursery in Pomonal was damaged by the fires, losing “significant” gardens and plants grown over the last four decades.

“We’re just trying to get the water back up and running so we can water the nursery,” he said.

Vaughan told Guardian Australia plants grown for the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show next month were damaged in the fire, including rare native grown for a show garden display.

“It will be interesting trying to replace [plants], but it’s the people who’ve lost their houses we’re more concerned about. We’ll soldier on. We can do a bit of replanting and do whatever we can do,” he said.

With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press

Australian federal MPs – including the prime minister and cabinet members – have voted overwhelmingly to urge the US and the UK to allow the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to return to Australia.

The independent MP Andrew Wilkie hailed the passage of the motion, 86 votes in favour and 42 against, as “an unprecedented show of political support for Mr Assange by the Australian parliament”.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, joined Coalition colleagues in opposing the motion on Wednesday, although the Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to back the pro-Assange motion.

The vote coincides with confirmation from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, that the Assange matter was raised when he met his US counterpart, Merrick Garland, in Washington DC two weeks ago.

“This was a private discussion; however this government’s position on Mr Assange is very clear, and has not changed,” Dreyfus told Guardian Australia.

“It is time this matter is brought to an end.”

Assange remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US attempt to extradite him from the UK to face charges – including under the Espionage Act – with the UK high court due to hold a two-day hearing next week.

The charges are in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.

Wilkie successfully moved to suspend parliamentary standing orders on Wednesday to debate the matter, a move seconded by the government backbencher Josh Wilson.

Anthony Albanese’s government has repeatedly said that “enough is enough” and that it is time for the Assange matter to be “brought to a conclusion”.

But the motion on Wednesday removed the ambiguity about what that conclusion should entail: allowing him back to Australia.

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The parliamentary motion specifically underlined “the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia”.

During the debate, Wilkie implored fellow MPs to support the motion because it was “time for all of us to take a stand”.

Wilkie said that if Assange lost his final UK appeal next week, “he could be on a plane to the United States within hours”.

“We’ve just about run out of time to save Julian Assange,” Wilkie told parliament.

Wilson, the Labor MP, told parliament that the same material at the heart of the charges against Assange had been “published without legal consequence by media organisations in the United States”.

“It is significant that both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition have been clear in saying the matter should come to an end,” Wilson said.

Despite Dutton’s past comments on the matter, he and fellow Coalition frontbenchers ultimately voted against the motion, which also included the statement that the material “revealed shocking evidence of misconduct by the USA”.

Some Coalition MPs who have previously backed calls for Assange’s release, including Barnaby Joyce, were not present for the vote. Eight Coalition MPs who were present for a separate vote immediately beforehand did not vote on the Assange motion.

The Greens and many crossbenchers supported the motion.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has previously pushed back at the Australian government’s complaints that the pursuit of Assange had dragged on too long.

After talks in Brisbane in July, Blinken said it was “very important” for “our friends” in Australia to understand the US concerns about Assange’s “alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country”.

Assange’s supporters argue it was in the public interest to publish information about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and say his prosecution sets a bad precedent for press freedom.

In September more than 60 Australian federal politicians explicitly called on the US Department of Justice to drop the prosecution, warning of “a sharp and sustained outcry in Australia” if the WikiLeaks founder was extradited.

A small cross-party delegation then flew to Washington DC in late September to lobby Biden administration officials and US lawmakers in the lead-up to Albanese’s visit.

Services Australia has apologised to its customers over a sustained blowout in call centre wait times as new figures also reveal a backlog of more than 1.1 million payment claims and significant delays for age pension applications.

Despite the Albanese government employing thousands of new Centrelink staff, only around 50% or 22.4m of the almost 45m calls to Centrelink made in the six months to 31 December were answered and handled by a Services Australia operator.

Over the same period, just over 7.4m calls, or 16.5%, were met with a congestion message and 2.3m were terminated by a customer.

The average wait time between July and December 2023 was 33 minutes. In comparison, the average time between July 2022 and 31 January 2023 was 18 minutes.

Those calling to inquire about family or parenting payments are waiting the longest, with an average time of 52 minutes, followed by those seeking help over disabilities, sickness and careers payments, who waited an average 48 minutes. Callers to the employment services line also waited an average of 48 minutes.

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The Services Australia deputy chief executive, Jarrod Howard, apologised to customers who were trying to get through.

“We are working really hard to answer as many calls as we can,“ he said. “I acknowledge and I apologise to any customer who is struggling to get through to us. There is not a person in the agency that does not want to serve customers.”

Howard said the telephone wait times should be reduced by March, when more of the 3,000 new staff hired at the end of last year had been fully trained.

The Services Australia chief executive, David Hazlehurst, also told the committee in Senate estimates that as of December 2023, 1.1m payment claims remained outstanding.

At the same time, the average number of days to process claims is also blowing out, hitting 40.1 days in December, up from 33.2 in July last year, the tabled documents reveal.

A claim for the age pension is meant to have a “timeliness standard” of 49 days but in December last year the average processing time was 91 days, up from 61 in August and 35 days in the 2021-22 financial year.

The jobseeker payment, which is meant to be processed in 16 days, hit an average processing time of 24 days in December, down from 29 in August, but up from nine days in the 2021-22 financial year.

The disability support pension average was sitting at 86 days while Austudy claims were waiting an average of 50 days to be processed.

“Reducing this backlog of claims is critical,” Hazlehurst said. “Not only because it means Australians are waiting longer to get the support they need but also because longer processing times lead to longer wait call times as customers call to check on the progress of their claim.”

He said hoped to get the outstanding claims back down to between 400,000 and 500,000 by April.

“I would expect that by the middle of the year, particularly in relation to new claims on hand, we’d expect to see things back more towards what we would expect to be a reasonable standard.”

Health authorities are urging people in parts of New South Wales and Queensland to monitor for measles symptoms after a person with a confirmed case of the highly infectious virus travelled interstate.

NSW Health said the adult boarded a plane on the Gold Coast and flew to Sydney on 7 February before travelling from central Sydney to Lane Cove and then to Haymarket on 10 February.

Tracing is under way in Queensland, where Gold Coast Health confirmed it is looking into potential exposure sites.

The individual recently returned from south-east Asia, where there are ongoing measles outbreaks in several countries, NSW Health said.

The case is not connected to a measles case in northern NSW which was confirmed earlier this week.

In a further update on Wednesday evening, Gold Coast Health said it had been notified of another case, a school-aged child from the Gold Coast who has returned from overseas where they acquired the virus.

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The highly contagious virus is spread by coughing and sneezing, with those who are infected taking up to 18 days to show symptoms. One individual is able to infect nine out of 10 unvaccinated close contacts, with complications from the disease including pneumonia, blindness and meningitis.

The South Eastern Sydney local health district director of public health, Dr Vicky Sheppeard, said the locations pose no risk but that those who were there at the same time as the infectious individual should monitor for symptoms.

“Symptoms of measles include fever, runny nose, sore eyes and a cough, usually followed three or four days later by a red, blotchy rash that spreads from the head to the rest of the body,” she said.

“Symptoms may appear between 7 and 18 days after an exposure, so it’s important for people to stay vigilant if they’ve been exposed, and if they develop symptoms, to please call ahead to their GP or emergency department to ensure they do not spend time in the waiting room with other patients,” she said.

She urged those who are unsure whether they have been vaccinated against measles to contact their GP, particularly if they plan to travel overseas.

The NSW/ACT chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Rebekah Hoffman, said that as the virus was airborne, “you do have to be at that location at that time” to be at risk.

Given measles’ long latency period, people need to monitor for symptoms for the next two weeks, she said.

“If you were there at those times and you feel like you have a runny nose and the start of some respiratory symptoms, book a telehealth appointment. And, of course, wear a mask,” she said.

The virus is on the rise in Europe, where cases have risen 30-fold, triggering urgent warnings from the World Health Organization.

Measles exposure locations and times:

Monday 5 February

• Nerang State School, Nerang between 8:45am to 3:30pm

• Flipz Academy Southport, Southport between 3:30pm to 4:45pm

• Southport Park Shopping Centre, Southport between 3:30pm to 4:45pm

• Flight JQ427 from Gold Coast, arriving in Sydney at 10:15pm

Monday 5 February to 7 February

• QT Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

Tuesday 6 February

• Palm Springs Café Burleigh, Burleigh Heads between 9:30am to 11am

• Sea World Marine Park Gold Coast, Main Beach between 11:30am to 5:30pm

• Etsu Japanese Izakaya Restaurant, Mermaid Beach between 9pm to 10:30pm

• Tram and bus 700 and 777 route from Surfers Paradise to Mermaid Beach between 8:20pm to 9pm

Wednesday 7 February

• Flight JQ427 from Gold Coast, arriving in Sydney 10:15pm

• Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal 2 between 10:15pm and 11pm

• You Japanese Restaurant, Surfers Paradise between 11am to 12:30pm

• Burleigh Pavilion, Burleigh Heads between 1:20pm to 3pm

• Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broadbeach Waters 3pm to 5:30pm

• PappaRich, Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broadbeach Waters 3pm to 5:30pm

• Gold Coast Airport, Bilinga 6pm to 8:15pm

Saturday 10 February

• Bus Route 288 from Sussex St at Erskine St to Lane Cove Interchange Stand C between 9:30am and 10am

• Thai Chiva Therapeutic Massage, Lane Cove between 10am and 7pm

• Satang Thai Takeaway Restaurant, Haymarket between 9pm and 11pm

Monday 12 February

• Woolworths Nerang, Nerang between 11am to 12pm

• Nerang Mall, Nerang between 11am to 12pm

Health authorities are urging people in parts of New South Wales and Queensland to monitor for measles symptoms after a person with a confirmed case of the highly infectious virus travelled interstate.

NSW Health said the adult boarded a plane on the Gold Coast and flew to Sydney on 7 February before travelling from central Sydney to Lane Cove and then to Haymarket on 10 February.

Tracing is under way in Queensland, where Gold Coast Health confirmed it is looking into potential exposure sites.

The individual recently returned from south-east Asia, where there are ongoing measles outbreaks in several countries, NSW Health said.

The case is not connected to a measles case in northern NSW which was confirmed earlier this week.

In a further update on Wednesday evening, Gold Coast Health said it had been notified of another case, a school-aged child from the Gold Coast who has returned from overseas where they acquired the virus.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

The highly contagious virus is spread by coughing and sneezing, with those who are infected taking up to 18 days to show symptoms. One individual is able to infect nine out of 10 unvaccinated close contacts, with complications from the disease including pneumonia, blindness and meningitis.

The South Eastern Sydney local health district director of public health, Dr Vicky Sheppeard, said the locations pose no risk but that those who were there at the same time as the infectious individual should monitor for symptoms.

“Symptoms of measles include fever, runny nose, sore eyes and a cough, usually followed three or four days later by a red, blotchy rash that spreads from the head to the rest of the body,” she said.

“Symptoms may appear between 7 and 18 days after an exposure, so it’s important for people to stay vigilant if they’ve been exposed, and if they develop symptoms, to please call ahead to their GP or emergency department to ensure they do not spend time in the waiting room with other patients,” she said.

She urged those who are unsure whether they have been vaccinated against measles to contact their GP, particularly if they plan to travel overseas.

The NSW/ACT chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Rebekah Hoffman, said that as the virus was airborne, “you do have to be at that location at that time” to be at risk.

Given measles’ long latency period, people need to monitor for symptoms for the next two weeks, she said.

“If you were there at those times and you feel like you have a runny nose and the start of some respiratory symptoms, book a telehealth appointment. And, of course, wear a mask,” she said.

The virus is on the rise in Europe, where cases have risen 30-fold, triggering urgent warnings from the World Health Organization.

Measles exposure locations and times:

Monday 5 February

• Nerang State School, Nerang between 8:45am to 3:30pm

• Flipz Academy Southport, Southport between 3:30pm to 4:45pm

• Southport Park Shopping Centre, Southport between 3:30pm to 4:45pm

• Flight JQ427 from Gold Coast, arriving in Sydney at 10:15pm

Monday 5 February to 7 February

• QT Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

Tuesday 6 February

• Palm Springs Café Burleigh, Burleigh Heads between 9:30am to 11am

• Sea World Marine Park Gold Coast, Main Beach between 11:30am to 5:30pm

• Etsu Japanese Izakaya Restaurant, Mermaid Beach between 9pm to 10:30pm

• Tram and bus 700 and 777 route from Surfers Paradise to Mermaid Beach between 8:20pm to 9pm

Wednesday 7 February

• Flight JQ427 from Gold Coast, arriving in Sydney 10:15pm

• Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal 2 between 10:15pm and 11pm

• You Japanese Restaurant, Surfers Paradise between 11am to 12:30pm

• Burleigh Pavilion, Burleigh Heads between 1:20pm to 3pm

• Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broadbeach Waters 3pm to 5:30pm

• PappaRich, Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broadbeach Waters 3pm to 5:30pm

• Gold Coast Airport, Bilinga 6pm to 8:15pm

Saturday 10 February

• Bus Route 288 from Sussex St at Erskine St to Lane Cove Interchange Stand C between 9:30am and 10am

• Thai Chiva Therapeutic Massage, Lane Cove between 10am and 7pm

• Satang Thai Takeaway Restaurant, Haymarket between 9pm and 11pm

Monday 12 February

• Woolworths Nerang, Nerang between 11am to 12pm

• Nerang Mall, Nerang between 11am to 12pm

Five iPads, a mobile phone, a USB and a smartwatch were among items found by sniffer dogs at the home of the Victorian woman at the centre of an alleged mushroom poisoning plot during a six-hour police raid last year, Senate estimates has heard.

The Australian federal police deployed technology detector dogs to help Victoria police execute a search warrant at Erin Patterson’s Leongatha home, in the state’s south-east, last November.

Police allege Patterson killed three people and left a fourth fighting for his life after serving a beef wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms at a lunch on 29 July last year.

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The AFP’s commissioner, Reece Kershaw, told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday night that the force had assisted Victoria police in their investigation into the fatal mushroom lunch.

“Technology detector dog Georgia found one USB, a micro secure digital card and a sim card,” he told the hearing. “Technology detector dog Alma found a mobile phone, five iPads, a trail camera and secure digital card and a smartwatch.”

Kershaw said the items were not found during the officers’ initial searches.

Patterson, who denies any wrongdoing, has remained behind bars since she was charged in November with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder.

Her former in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, died after she hosted them for lunch at her home.

Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after spending almost two months in hospital.

Patterson is also charged with four counts of attempted murder related to her former partner, Simon Patterson, including on the day of the fatal lunch. He was not present for that meal.

According to police documents filed in court, Patterson is accused of attempting to murder her former partner in November 2021, in May 2022, on 6 September 2022 and on 29 July.

Police allege Patterson also attempted to murder Ian Wilkinson on 29 July.

She appeared at the Latrobe Valley magistrates court, in Victoria’s south-east, in November. During the hearing, police sought a 20-week adjournment to analyse computer equipment seized at the Leongatha home.

Rebels in Indonesia’s West Papua region have released a video of New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, in which he tells his family he loves them and is being treated well by his captors.

Mehrtens, a former Jetstar pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army a year ago as a bargaining chip for its push for independence from Indonesia. The video was filmed on 22 December – prior to the army announcing last week Mehrtens would soon be freed, but not confirming when.

“I’m OK, they are treating me well, I’m trying to stay positive,” Mehrtens said in the video message directed to his family. He added that the “Komadan” – which is Bahasa for commander – who took the video said he can try calling his family next time the commander visits him.

“I love you both lots and miss you both lots and hope to be able to talk with you soon.”

In a second video that was also released, Mehrtens said the Komadan was able to help order “a couple of things for me”, requesting two ventolin inhalers and an ebook reader with “as many English books as possible”.

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“That would be very much appreciated,” he said in the video. It’s unclear who the second video was directed at.

On 7 February, a year to the day since Mehrtens was kidnapped after he landed a small commercial passenger plane at Paro airport in Nduga (epicenter of the growing Papuan insurgency), the army announced Mehrtens would be freed “to protect humanity and ensure human rights”.

In a statement announcing the release, the chief of general staff of the West Papua National Liberation Army, Terianus Satto, criticised the Indonesian and New Zealand governments for not meeting the terms for peace negotiations to begin between Indonesia and West Papua in exchange for Mehrtens’ release.

In May last year, the army threatened to shoot Mehrtens if the Indonesian government did not meet its demands to begin independence talks.

Mehrtens’ kidnapping has renewed attention on the long-running and deadly conflict that has raged in West Papua, which makes up the western half of Papua New Guinea, since Indonesia took control of the former Dutch colony in 1969.

The Free West Papua Movement, of which the West Papua National Liberation Army is the armed wing and regularly engages in skirmishes with Indonesian security forces, has continued to demand a fair vote on self-determination.

Peaceful acts of civil disobedience by Indigenous West Papuans, such as raising the banned “Morning Star” flag, are met with police and military brutality and long jail sentences.

In 2022, UN human rights experts called for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to the region because of serious concerns about “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.

On the same day the army announced Mehrtens would be released, New Zealand’s minister for foreign affairs, Winston Peters, released a statement appealing for Mehrtens to be freed immediately, adding the government had been working with the Indonesian authorities to secure his release.

“Let me be absolutely clear. There can never be any justification for hostage taking,” Peters said.

Democrat Tom Suozzi won the New York congressional seat vacated by the disgraced Republican George Santos on Tuesday night, in a boost for Joe Biden ahead of the presidential election.

The victory narrows the slim Republican majority in the House and gives Democrats a much-needed win in New York City’s Long Island suburbs, where Republican candidates have shown strength in recent elections.

The Associated Press called the result after 52% of votes were counted, with Suozzi on 59% compared with 41% for Republican candidate Mazi Pilip.

“The people of Queens and Long Island are sick and tired of political bickering,” Suozzi said during a victory speech. “They want us to come together and solve problems.”

In what had become an increasingly bitter campaign, the inexperienced Pilip attempted to tie Suozzi to the immigration situation at the US-Mexico border.

Pilip conceded the race and said she congratulated Suozzi in a phone call on Tuesday night. “Yes we lost, but it doesn’t mean we are going to end here,” Pilip told supporters at her election watch party.

The seat, in Long Island, was seen as a key indicator of voter sentiment before the expected Biden-Donald Trump election in November. Biden won the district in 2020, but the area swung Republican in the 2022 midterm elections, when Santos was elected.

However, forecasting for November could be complicated given that turnout was potentially hampered by a storm that dumped several inches of snow on the district on election day. Both campaigns offered voters free rides to the polls as plows cleared slush from the roads.

The result leaves Republicans with a 219-213 majority that has already proved hard to manage, illustrated by the chamber’s failure last week to pass a measure to impeach Biden’s top border official, Alejandro Mayorkas, which fell short by one vote when a few Republicans voted no. The House approved the measure on Tuesday, after Republican Steve Scalise returned from cancer treatment to cast a decisive vote.

Santos was expelled from Congress in December after he was charged with more than 20 counts of fraud, sparking a special election. Even before the charges, Santos had proved an intense source of embarrassment for Republicans, after it emerged he had fabricated huge chunks of his personal history.

Suozzi, who previously spent six years in the House of Representatives before quitting to run, unsuccessfully, for New York governor, will have to run again for the seat in the nationwide congressional elections in November.

The demographic of New York’s third congressional district had made this a closely watched election nationwide. The district, seen as a political bellwether, is largely suburban and was one of 18 districts that Biden won in 2020, but which then went on to vote for a Republican House representative in 2022.

Immigration, abortion and aid to Israel featured heavily in both Suozzi and Pilip’s election campaigns, issues which are likely to remain important later this year.

Pilip, a relatively unknown local politician who was criticized for avoiding the press during the campaign, sought to tie Suozzi to Biden, claiming the pair had “created the migrant crisis”.

Suozzi tried to distance himself from the left of the Democratic party by promising to “battle” progressive members of Congress. He accused Pilip of being anti-abortion – Pilip said she is “pro-life”, but would not support a national abortion ban.

Both Pilip, an Orthodox Jew who was born in Ethiopia before moving to Israel and who served in the Israel Defense Forces before coming to the US, and Suozzi are fervent supporters of continued aid, which became a key issue in a district which the Jewish Democratic Council of America estimates has one of the largest Jewish populations of anywhere in the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

The estranged husband of Kelly Wilkinson, who was doused in petrol and set alight, has pleaded guilty to her murder less than a month before his scheduled trial.

Brian Earl Johnston, 37, appeared before Brisbane supreme court on Wednesday via video link for arraignment on one count of murdering 27-year-old Wilkinson on 20 April 2021 in a Gold Coast backyard as a domestic violence offence.

Justice Peter Callaghan asked Johnston to repeat his plea of guilty as it was not clear on the video link from custody.

Prosecutors previously alleged Johnston tied up the mother-of-three before setting her alight at her Arundel home.

The former US marine was previously also charged with breaching a domestic violence order and his bail conditions.

Johnston was arrested two blocks from the home suffering burns to his hands.

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In court on Wednesday, Johnston did not respond when asked if he wanted to say anything as to why sentence should not be passed upon him.

Defence barrister Kim Bryson said she had agreed with crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy that 13 March would be suitable for a sentencing hearing.

“There are some factual matters that remain contested in relation to the background of the relationship … we have been frustrated in our efforts to get out to the prison due to the lockdowns that have occurred,” Bryson said.

McCarthy said there was also a contest of facts over the motivation for Johnston murdering Wilkinson.

Justice Callaghan said he could change the sentencing date if needed and ordered that Johnston remain in custody.

Wilkinson’s murder sparked community outrage as she had sought domestic violence protection from Johnston in the weeks before her death.

At the time she was the third Queensland woman to die after allegedly being set on fire by abusive partners in the space of 12 months.

Businesswoman Tamika Smith set up a community fundraiser to build a new home for Wilkinson’s children and mining magnate Clive Palmer donated vacant land at Hope Island.