The Latest Breaking News from Tasmania

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews says the flooding in his state is extremely serious as NSW and Tasmania await their turn, and one in eight Australians live below the poverty line.

Parts of Tasmania have been hit by record-breaking rainfall with major warnings issued for rivers across the north and north-west and evacuations across 17 local government areas.

Evacuation centres open on the island state of Tasmania, parts of which could see 300mm (12 inches) of rain by Friday.

There have been rescues across Victoria and Tasmania, while thousands of people have been told to evacuate.

Thousands of homes across Victoria are without power, and Tasmanians are on flood alert as heavy rain lashes south-eastern Australia.

Emergency school closures in Victoria and evacuation centres open in south-east Australia as floodwaters rise.

The Special Olympics National Games are back in Tasmania for the first time in more than three decades and it's a special time for locals and athletes alike.

Several people have been rescued in Tasmania's north while residents from Latrobe to Liena and Meander to Hadspen are being urged to evacuate as the Mersey and Meander rivers rise amid increasing rainfall.

A Tasmanian woman who alleges she is a victim of domestic violence says she feels "gaslit" by the state's justice system after senior police downplayed her claims as "a family quibble" and a magistrate called them a "tenuous thread of allegations".