News live: Sussan Ley says her leadership can survive Coalition split; Australian actors among Oscar nominees

Follow updates liveLiberal senator says party still ‘believes’ in the CoalitionAnne Ruston, a Liberal senator, said the party still believes in the Coalition and would like to see it continue, but said Sussan Ley was left with “no option but to accept” multiple resignations after members of the Nationals broke a “fundamental rule”.We believe in the coalition and we would like to see a coalition continue, but the circumstances around the actions of the National party this week left the leader with no option but to accept the resignations of three people who, by their own admission, broke the very fundamental rule of a coalition and that is shadow cabinet solidarity. So I think the leader is absolutely right.The most important thing that we can do as of today is to focus on the future of responding to the needs of the Australian public because that’s what they elected us to do.That’s obviously a matter for the National party and their deliberations as to why they chose yesterday as a day to make public comment, and I’m not going to make any further comment than that. Continue reading...