Australia news LIVE: Hastie leadership threat looms for Ley; Medieval tower collapses in Rome, trapping worker underneath rubble

After days of chaos over energy policy, Coalition MPs have emerged from a surprisingly benign joint party room meeting in Canberra.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and energy spokesman Dan Tehan, under pressure to announce a Liberal position on the 2050 net zero target, said there would be a Liberal-only meeting of MPs some time over the next few weeks.

The Nationals dumped the net zero pledge over the weekend, spurring Ley’s senior right-wing allies to argue the Liberals should do the same.

There was no debate over the policy in the meeting.

Some of Ley’s colleagues were keen for Ley to detail to MPs a clear date or plan for reaching a position. They were left disappointed. Conservative MP Tony Pasin requested the meeting be held on Sunday 23 November, the day before the next sitting period.

The room became raucous when moderate Liberal senator Jane Hume suggested Nationals were avoiding meetings of the Coalition committee helping to form the opposition’s energy plan.

The latest of these talk-fests occurred on Friday. Nationals MPs objected to Hume’s rebuke because they were busy at a Nationals party conference.

Staying with the Coalition’s manager of business in the house, Alex Hawke said opposition leader was “one of the toughest jobs in Australian politics”.

A key backer of Sussan Ley’s leadership, Hawke dismissed running commentary from political opponents and media reports about her tenuous position.

“It always has been [tough], doesn’t matter the personality that occupies it or the party,” Hawke told ABC Radio Sydney.

He said Ley would continue to lead the party and no one was proposing a challenge, despite her widely criticised remarks in recent weeks about sacking Kevin Rudd as ambassador and criticising the prime minister’s Joy Division t-shirt.

“You get hyper-analysed as opposition leader. I think opposition leaders have a go on various things. Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don’t.”

Manager of opposition business in the house, Alex Hawke, says the Coalition can win back teal seats “regardless of our position on net zero”.

Liberals lost a number of inner-city electorates to the climate change independents in 2022, and made no net gain in those seats at the last election.

“The issues of each election are different. Each of the elections we lost there wasn’t singularly about climate change,” Hawke told ABC Radio Sydney.

He said many of the lost seats were marginal and could be recaptured with the right policy, which could still include nuclear.

“Last time I was very convinced nuclear power was a step change and it’s something I believe in passionately as a liberal in the future. Our policy wasn’t right. The electorate didn’t like it and they’re not ready for it. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep proposing intelligent solutions to our energy mix like nuclear for the future.”

The number of protesters arrested attempting to blockade a state-sponsored defence expo has risen to 10, with a police operation to contain the demonstration expected to continue through the day.

Police have used capsicum spray on protesters near Sydney’s ICC during the operation involving mounted police and riot squad officers.

Officers have been on the scene since 5am as part of an operation in response to two planned demonstrations.

Confrontations between police and protesters started about 6.30am after a group allegedly left a designated public assembly zone and tried to access a restricted area, police said.

Protesters also allegedly tried to breach containment lines about 8.30am.

Two of those arrested have been released without charge. Eight others were taken to police stations.

NSW Police Superintendent Paul Dunstan said police would remain on the scene throughout the day “to ensure the safety and security of delegates at the venue and the wider community”.

“Anyone not complying with police directions, or found to be breaching the peace, will be arrested and dealt with accordingly,” he said.

UTS Student Isabel has recounted being “pepper-sprayed right in the face” during a pro-Palestine protest outside a weapons expo being held at the ICC in Sydney today.

“It got in my eyes, in my mouth, and I’ve been pretty much pouring water over myself for the last five or 10 minutes,” she told the Herald’s chief photographer Kate Geraghty.

“We’ve just been demonstrating here today. We haven’t been pushing back but we’ve been pretty aggressively thrown off course [at] the ICC and we’re now in just Tumbalong Park kind of recovering.”

As the joint party room meeting for the Coalition gets underway in Canberra, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says he will not be in attendance despite the Nationals dumping their net zero by 2050 climate target on Sunday.

Asked by Sky News this morning whether he would be in attendance, he said, “Well, Laura, I’m talking to you.”

Then, asked whether he planned to join the meeting later, he said, “No, Laura. Laura, as I’ve said before, we keep on going over this territory… Why is anybody sort of surprised about the fury and anger and the motivation I have on this issue?”

“On the back bench, you don’t have many cards… and the few cards you do have, you keep them very close to your chest because I think people would have given me zero and no chance of having effect on the agenda. Egotistical statement, but I think I have,” Joyce said.

North Korea says its longtime ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam has died.

The Korean Central News Agency said Kim Yong-nam, former president of the Presidium of North Korea’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly, died on Monday at the age of 97.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Kim Yong-nam’s bier on Tuesday to express deep condolences over his death, the KCNA said.

As head of state, Kim Yong-nam greeted visiting foreign dignitaries and delivered propaganda-filled speeches with a deep, booming voice at key state events.

He was part of North Korea’s delegation that attended the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018 during a period of diplomatic openness before his influence waned.

AP

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says he doesn’t think Australia can walk away from its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as his party attempts to reach a final decision on net zero.

Speaking to ABC’s News Breakfast earlier, Bragg said, “I don’t see how we could walk away from the Paris Agreement. I don’t see how we will walk away from our commitment to reduce emissions. I mean, virtually every country is in the Paris Agreement. Virtually every country has committed to net zero emissions.

“And the reality is that countries like Canada and Japan, who are committing to net zero, like Australia has, are also able to provide cheap power. I don’t believe that it is net zero that is the enemy here.

“I believe the enemy is Labor’s electricity policies and their aversion to using coal for longer, their aversion to using other things like nuclear. I think that is a real cause of our problems in Australia, where we’re seeing higher power prices and we’re losing industry [to] offshore.”

Bragg said that sticking with a commitment to reach net zero “in this century” – a requirement of the Paris Agreement – is “an important objective for Australia to maintain”.

“The Paris Agreement is the red line here… So I think that would be an important objective for Australia to maintain as a serious country and with a group of people in this country that actually do care about climate change.”

Bragg refused to elaborate on a date for the target to be reached.