Australian politics live: Minns defends police actions at protest in ‘impossible situation’; PM ‘devastated’ by scenes in Sydney and Melbourne

From 1h ago 20.26 GMT Minns says police ‘put in an impossible situation’ Penry Buckley The NSW premier, Chris Minns, is making the first of multiple appearances across the media this morning following the violent clashes between police and protesters yesterday evening. He has told Channel Nine’s Today program that police were “put in an impossible situation last night”: It’s worth remembering they did everything possible to avoid that confrontation, starting last week when they begged protest organisers to have it in Hyde Park, where it was safe and a march could take place. I know that some of the scenes on media are short clips, but people have to understand the circumstances where protesters breached police lines and ran amuck in Sydney would have been devastating. What we can say today what we couldn’t say yesterday is that we had 7,000 Jewish mourners in the same city at the same time, and police had to keep those two groups apart. Asked about comments from NSW Labor backbencher Sarah Kaine that the police response were disproportionate, Minns says: No. She’s wrong. I’m not going to throw police under the bus this morning. This is a situation that’s incredibly combustible. And the circumstances that weren’t shown on the news this morning or on TV last night because is what would have happened if protesters breached police lines ... It would have dangerous … as difficult as the scenes were to watch, it would have been infinitely worse if NSW police didn’t do their job last night. A man reacts after being tear-gassed by NSW police at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney last night. Photograph: Jeremy Piper/Reuters Share Updated at 20.32 GMT

now 21.40 GMT Dan Jervis-Bardy The Liberal party room is due to meet at 9am on Tuesday as speculation that Angus Taylor will soon launch a leadership challenge to Sussan Ley continues to swirl around Canberra. A leadership spill is considered unlikely at Tuesday’s meeting for a few reasons. Firstly, the 23 Liberal senators aren’t expected to attend the meeting due to senate estimates hearings. Liberal party conventions dictate that MPs must be present to vote in the leadership ballot. The second reason is that Taylor is yet to resign from the shadow cabinet, which he would be required to do in order to challenge Ley. Supporters of the shadow defence minister were on Monday certain of a spill at some point this week after the latest Newspoll showed the Coalition’s