As it happened: Sussan Ley defends leadership as Liberals and Nationals reel from Coalition split

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has defended her leadership after the Coalition’s implosion, declaring she will survive as Liberal leader.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese predicted another MP from the former Coalition would defect to One Nation soon and criticised the opposition’s disunity as he appeared on radio in Perth.
• Andrew Hastie backers have started hitting the phones to rally support for a leadership challenge, as Ley’s allies try to dig in.
• In NSW, it has been revealed the man who allegedly murdered three people in Lake Cargelligo yesterday was granted bail by police while facing domestic violence charges.
• In Victoria, a federal court has ruled the police declaration to search people without a warrant across much of inner Melbourne was invalid and unlawfully breached the state’s human rights charter.
• In Queensland, data revealed to the Brisbane Times shows motorists will face a commute of up to 2½ hours between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in the next two decades.
• In Western Australia, the nation’s political and business elite turned out today to farewell Labor election mastermind Tim Picton at a memorial at Optus Stadium after he died following an alleged coward-punch attack.
• In business news, the Australia sharemarket ended the week lower, but made a slight 0.13 per cent gain today as geopolitical tensions eased.
• In world news, Denmark and Greenland are ruling out a sweeping concession to US President Donald Trump in a new framework he says can ensure Arctic security.

Thanks for your company. Have a good night.

Andrew Hastie’s backers have started hitting the phones to rally support for a leadership challenge by the West Australian MP as Opposition Leader Sussan Ley digs in with her allies, determined to get through the crisis sparked by a historic Coalition split.

Hastie has told colleagues in recent days that he is ready to run soon, and his backers have also been receiving inbound calls in which the question of leadership is being explicitly discussed, according to half a dozen party sources unwilling to speak publicly.

Events are moving quickly in the Liberal Party, and particularly the Right faction, a day after Nationals leader David Littleproud withdrew from the Coalition. That move has drawn anger from all corners of the Liberals and some in the country party.

Groups of Liberal MPs shifted gears on Friday and began discussing plans for a fresh start, even though Ley’s colleagues sympathise with the poor hand she was dealt.

Read the full exclusive here.

A review of the Albanese government’s landslide election victory has found more work is needed to counter AI-generated disinformation.

The internal Labor review, released by party president Wayne Swan today, praised the campaign that delivered Anthony Albanese 94 seats in the House of Representatives and badly damaged the Liberals and the Greens.

However, the four-person review panel found artificial intelligence was used by Labor’s opponents to spread disinformation during the campaign.

This included unlabelled AI-generated videos and images for posters and online content.

“International evidence shows that AI fundamentally lowers the cost and increases the scale of disinformation operations,” the review said. “Increasingly, people cannot tell authentic from manufactured information.”

AAP, with Lachlan Abbott

The prime minister has predicted another MP from the former Coalition will defect to One Nation soon.

Anthony Albanese appeared on ABC Radio Perth earlier today, and was asked whether he believed Sussan Ley would still be Liberal leader when parliament resumed.

“I’ve given up worrying about what happens with the chaos over there,” he told host Mark Gibson.

“You’ve got One Nation getting recruits. I predict here, Mark, there will be at least one more defection to One Nation over coming weeks. I’ll let them announce that. But I think it’s pretty obvious from the behaviour that occurred in parliament this week, at least one more will go.”

The prime minister also said: “Sussan Ley, the first woman leader of the Liberal Party, has been undermined from day one. And the alternative leaders are worse.”

In business news, the Australian sharemarket climbed into the green by lunchtime after more gains on Wall Street following US President Donald Trump walking back his most severe threats over Greenland.

The S&P/ASX 200 started the session slightly lower but was up 19.6 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8868.3 points, just before 2.30pm.

Stocks tied to gold jumped after the price of the safe-haven metal rebounded.

Financial stocks gave up some of Thursday’s strong gains. Commonwealth Bank (down 1.3 per cent), Westpac (down 0.8 per cent), National Australia Bank (down 0.8 per cent) and ANZ Bank (down 1.2 per cent) all lost ground.

Read the latest market news here.