Healthcare workers gathered outside Parliament to send the Federal Government a strong message that heat and climate change are harmful to health, and people need protection now

 

“As GPs, we know that increasing extremes of heat can have an impact on the health of the community – especially on the very young, and the very old. In primary care, we need to help our patients plan for heatwaves, which might include discussing staying cool, using air conditioning, or including this in chronic disease management plans, but we also need to advocate for broader interventions that can reduce climate change.” [Associate Professor Rowena Ivers, representing the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Healthy Futures media release, 26 March 2024]

IMAGE: @RACGPPresident

Health professionals gathered at 11am on Tuesday, 26 March 2024 outside Parliament House in Canberra to deliver an open letter signed by 25 organisations representing over 50,000 health professionals, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP), calling for funding commitments for rooftop solar on social housing to protect vulnerable people from the health impacts of extreme heat and climate change.

Led by Healthy Futures1, the letter warns that heat-related illnesses kill thousands of Australians every year.

The letter requests that the Federal government commit to installing rooftop solar on at least 30% of Australian social housing, to be completed by the end of 2026, provide access to affordable renewable electricity where rooftop solar is impractical and install reverse cycle air conditioning and implement other energy efficient retrofits to achieve safe temperatures in all social housing.

Key facts:

Heat-related illnesses kill thousands of Australians every year (1) by increasing heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and other health impacts.

Roughly one-third of heat-related deaths in Australia are attributable to climate change (2,3).

Many social housing dwellings are poor quality and prone to temperature extremes (3-5).

A 2023 survey of people on low incomes by the Australian Council of Social Services found that 94.5% avoided using air conditioning because it is too expensive (6). [Healthy Futures, media release, 26 March 2024]

Text of the Letter

To: the Hon Chris Bowen, Federal Minister for Climate Change & Energy

Cc: the Hon Jenny McAllister, Federal Assistant Minister for Climate Change & Energy

& the Hon Mark Butler, Federal Minister for Health & Aged Care

& the Hon Jim Chalmers, Federal Treasurer

& the Hon Julie Collins, Federal Minister for Housing

& the Hon Amanda Rishworth, Federal Minister for Families and Social Services

Dear Minister Bowen,

As healthcare workers and community members, we request that the Australian government protect people in social housing from the increasing health impacts of climate change by ensuring that their homes are kept at safe temperatures through building retrofits and affordable, renewable-powered air conditioning.

Heat-related illnesses kill thousands of Australians every year (1) and roughly one-third of these deaths can be attributed to climate change (2,3). Heatwaves increase the risk of dehydration, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes. Older people, children, people with pre-existing health conditions and people unable to afford air conditioning are most vulnerable.

Currently, many social housing dwellings are poor quality and prone to temperature extremes (4-6). A 2023 survey of people on low incomes by the Australian Council of Social Services found that 94.5% avoided using air conditioning because it is too expensive (7). Solar panels can significantly reduce air conditioning costs, and while 30% of Australian homes now have rooftop solar, rooftop solar coverage on social housing in New South Wales, for example, is only 7% (8).

Energy efficiency retrofits and renewable-powered air conditioning will not only protect people from extreme temperatures and drive down costs of living; they will also mitigate climate change and its health impacts in the long term by reducing dependence on polluting fossil fuel-based electricity.

We therefore request that as part of the next federal budget you commit funding to:

• Roll out rooftop solar on at least 30% of Australian social housing, to be completed by the end of 2026

• Ensure access to affordable renewable electricity for social housing where rooftop solar is impractical, e.g. via power purchasing agreements and/or battery storage

• Install reverse cycle air conditioning and implement other energy efficient retrofits to achieve safe temperatures in all social housing.

Sincerely,

Signed by 25 organisations representing over 50,000 health professionals, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP)

References:

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00081-4/fulltext

[2]

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-change-blamed-for-more-than-a-third-of-heat-related-deaths-20210531-p57wpy.html

[3]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01058-x

[4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378778822005205?via%3Dihub

[5] https://www.malleefamilycare.org.au/MFCSite/media/PDFDocuments/PublicHousing/2019/MalleeFamilyCare_PublicHousing_Report_2019.pdf

[6]

https://www.shelterwa.org.au/stuck-in-the-heat/

[7]

https://www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Heat-Survey-Report_20230228.pdf

[8]

https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/576436/environmental-sustainability-strategy-2024-2026.pdf

“Extreme heat can trigger heart attacks, kidney failure, strokes and even death,” said Ursula Alquier, Healthy Futures Campaigner. “We want to see a commitment to ensure people living in social housing are able to live in safe and healthy homes”

“As healthcare workers, we are concerned about the health of our patients and our climate. People in social housing need energy-efficient homes with cheap renewable-powered air conditioning to protect their health” said Dr Harry Jennens, general practitioner and Healthy Futures Co-ordinator. [Healthy Futures, media release, 26 March 2024]

IMAGE: @RACGPPresident

NOTES

1. Healthy Futures is an affiliate of Friends of the Earth Australia and a member of the Climate and Health Alliance.

A shallow dive into a deep pool to look at the 2024 World Happiness Report

 

SPOILER ALERT: Australia has an overall score of 10th in the Top 10 of Country Rankings by Life Evaluation 2021-2023.  However, in Australia personal happiness is not growing but falling. More females than males are likely to express negative emotions or be classified as having lower life satisfaction. Those people under 30 years of age & those 30 to 44 years of age are the least happy. With the winners in the happiness lottery being Australians 60 years of age and older who - despite increased frequency of health problems & dwindling social interactions with the wider community - were found to be the happiest. In fact we belong to a sad little group of countries - United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - where our young & younger mature adults no longer appear to be travelling through life as well as is anticipated in a first world country with the 12th largest economy.

Gallup-University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre-UN Sustainable Solutions Network, World Happiness Report 2024, March 2024, excerpts:

Happiness

Happiness has generally increased for all age groups in East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the CIS, and fallen in South Asia, the NANZ group and the Middle East and North Africa....

Inequality in the distribution of happiness reflects inequalities of access to any of the direct and indirect supports for well-being, including income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the presence of supportive social environments at the family, community and national levels. People are happier living in countries where the equality of happiness is greater.... 

This is the first report to consider equality of happiness by age group, set in a global environment of increasing inequality. At the global level, averaged across all ages and regions, inequality of happiness has increased by more than 20% over the past dozen years.

For the world as a whole, the average frequency of the selected negative emotions is higher for females than males, with the gender gap growing slightly from the young to the old.....

Happiness fell significantly in the country group including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, by twice as much for the young as for the old.....

For the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially for the young, so much so that the young are now, in 2021-2023, the least happy age group. This is a big change from 2006-2010, when the young were happier than those in the midlife groups, and about as happy as those aged 60 and over. For the young, the happiness drop was about three-quarters of a point, and greater for females than males....

The group including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand shows a quite different pattern than elsewhere. Negative emotions are at all ages more frequent for females than males, especially for those under 30. In this region, unlike anywhere else except Western Europe, negative emotions are more frequent among the young and least frequent for the old....

Changes in emotions between 2006-2010 and 2021-2023. 

As shown in Figure 2.8, negative emotions are more frequent now than in 2006-2010 everywhere, only slightly so in East Asia and Western Europe. The big exception is in Central and Eastern Europe, where there has been a drop in the frequency of negative emotions in all age groups, in contrast to the rest of the world, but consistent with the happiness convergence taking place within Europe.

Increases in negative emotions have been most frequent in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, especially at higher ages. In Latin America there has been no increased frequency of negative emotions among those under 30, but a substantial increase in the older age groups. The CIS countries show a similar but somewhat muted pattern.

There is the reverse pattern in the NANZ countries where negative emotions have increased more for the young than for the old. No other region shows negative emotions increasing more for the young than for the old.....

...positive emotions, which include laughter, enjoyment, and doing interesting things, are based on experience the previous day, are almost everywhere more frequent in the youngest age groups, and are gradually less frequent at higher ages. The only exception is in the NANZ group of countries, which show a U-shape in age, with those 60+ having about the same frequency of positive emotions as those under 30....

Loneliness

Loneliness, when measured on the same scale as social support, is in all regions generally half as prevalent as social support. It displays somewhat matching patterns, being low where social support is high, and vice versa. Only in Southeast Asia, Western Europe and the NANZ countries is loneliness significantly higher for the Millennials than for the Boomers, a pattern that is reversed in Central and Eastern Europe.

An earlier study found age to be the most important factor in explaining loneliness differences among survey respondents in the United States. They found a peak in loneliness at age 20, with a steady age-related decline thereafter. This same phenomenon is evident in the Gallup/Meta data for the group of four countries including the United States. Although overall levels of loneliness are not unduly high in global terms, there is a significantly different pattern across the generations. Loneliness is almost twice as high among the Millennials than among those born before 1965. Millennials also feel less socially supported than Boomers in those countries, another place in which these countries look different from the rest of the world. This is despite the fact that actual social connections are much more frequent for Millennials than Boomers, and about as frequent as for Generation X.

Do the high prevalence of loneliness and the lesser feelings of social support help to explain the very large ranking disparities between the old and young for the NANZ countries....

Another interesting feature of the Gallup/Meta results, applicable in all global regions, is that the oldest members of the population, those in the boomer and earlier generations, feel more socially supported and less lonely than those in the younger generations despite having less frequent actual interactions with all groups except neighbours. This ability to gain more perceived support with fewer interactions likely helps to explain why life satisfaction so often rises after middle age even as the frequency and seriousness of health problems increases.....

Note: In 2022 loneliness averaged 27% across all countries, and 21% for the four-country group including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Child and Adolescent Well-being

• In most countries life satisfaction drops gradually from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Globally, young people aged 15-24 still report higher life satisfaction than older adults. But this gap is narrowing in Western Europe and recently reversed in North America due to falling life satisfaction among the young. Conversely, in Sub-Saharan Africa life satisfaction has increased among the young.

• Overall, globally, young people aged 15-24 experienced improved life-satisfaction between 2006 and 2019, and stable life satisfaction since then. But the picture varied by region. Youth wellbeing fell in North America, Western Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. In the rest of the world it rose.

• Turning to younger ages (10-15), evidence is limited. In high income countries, life satisfaction has declined since 2019, especially for girls. For East Asian countries, life satisfaction increased in 2019. Before 2019, the evidence on trends is mixed.

• Girls report lower life satisfaction than boys by around the age of 12. This gap widens at ages 13 and 15, and the pandemic has amplified the difference. These points apply only to high-income countries since data on these young ages is rarely gathered elsewhere. For ages 15-24, global data shows no global gender differences from 2006 until 2013. But from 2014, females began reporting higher life satisfaction than males, although the gap has narrowed after the pandemic. This global gender gap masks regional differences, and is more pronounced in lower-income countries. There are no gender differences in high-income countries.

A breakdown of Australia's Happiness Ranking

2.1 Country Rankings by Life Evaluations in 2021-2023

Australia (7.057) in 10th position with a 95% confidence interval, in a field of 143 countries.

Note: National average life evaluations and measures of positive and negative emotions (by country and year) were established in terms of six key variables: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.

2021-2023 Country Rankings

The top countries no longer include any of the

largest countries. In the top ten countries only

the Netherlands and Australia have populations

over 15 million. In the whole of the top twenty,

only Canada and the United Kingdom have

populations over 30 million.

.....the four countries in the NANZ group -

the United States, Canada, Australia and New

Zealand - all have rankings for the young that

are much lower than for the old, with the biggest

discrepancies in the United States and Canada

where the gap is 50 places or more....these gaps have

mainly arisen since 2010, and probably involve

some mix of generational and age effects.

2.2 Ranking of Happiness - the Young (Age below 30): 2021-2023

Australia (7.013) ranked 19th in a field of 143 countries, with a 95% confidence interval.

Table 2.2: Ranking of life evaluations by age group, 2021- 2023

Australia's ranking

All ages — 10th

The Young (under 30 yrs) — 19th

Lower Middle (30-44 yrs) — 14th

Upper Middle (45-59yrs) — 10th

The Old (60+ yrs) — 9th

Happiest — The Old

Least Happy — Lower Middle

2.4 Ranking of Happiness - the Old (age 60 and above): 2021-2023

Australia (7.304) ranked 9th in a field of 143 countries, with a 95% confidence interval.

2.5 Changes in Happiness: from 2006-2010 to 2021-2023

Australia (0.273) negative change ranking 102nd in a field of 134 countries, with a 95% confidence interval. Being the 33rd highest fall in happiness score ranking, the highest being Afghanistan (2.599). 

The full 2024 World Happiness Report can be read and downloaded at:

https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2024/WHR+24.pdf

Video Portrait of a War Crime 2024: a situation that the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia is assiduously averting its eyes from even as it ignores its binding responsibilities under international law and conventions

As of 23 March 2024 at least 32,142 Palestinian men women and children had been killed and more than 74,412 had been wounded in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza quoted in mainstream media.

On 18 March 2024 the World Health Organisation stated:

The latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership released today warns that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, with northern Gaza facing imminent famine and the rest of the Strip at risk as well.

"The IPC announcement reflects the dire situation that the people of Gaza are facing," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Before this crisis, there was enough food in Gaza to feed the population. Malnutrition was a rare occurrence. Now, people are dying, and many more are sick. Over a million people are expected to face catastrophic hunger unless significantly more food is allowed to enter Gaza."

Before the recent months’ hostilities, 0.8% of children under 5 years of age were acutely malnourished. Today’s report shows that as of February in the northern governorates, that figure is between 12.4 and 16.5%.

Without a significant and immediate increase in deliveries of food, water and other essential supplies, conditions will continue deteriorating. Virtually all households are already skipping meals every day and adults are reducing their meals so that children can eat. 

UN News stated on 20 March 2024:

“Facilitated missions primarily involved food distributions, nutrition and health assessments, and the delivery of supplies to hospitals,” OCHA said, repeating warnings that “humanitarian access constraints” continue to “severely affect the timely delivery of life-saving assistance, particularly to hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza”.

Echoing those calls on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the Israeli authorities “to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and for the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts”. 

In January 2024 mainstream media began to report that Israeli citizens were blockading humanitarian aid trucks at official checkpoints for transit from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqRzfb2oMaM 

22 Mar 2024 #TheGrayzone

Journalist Jeremy Loffredo goes inside the grassroots Israeli campaign to block desperately needed aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and elicits the shockingly candid views of the Jewish Israeli nationalists manning the barricades.

Setting out on a bus caravan through illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Loffredo arrives at the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza, filming Israeli citizens as they physically block trucks loaded with flour and other essential goods. There, a reservist who served in the military assault on Gaza confesses to an array of war crimes, including blowing up the offices of UN centers dedicated to providing food to the local population.

Loffredo then joins nationalists on a march toward Gaza, where they hope to establish new settlements after the population is violently driven out.

This original Grayzone report was produced thanks to viewers like you.

Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com

Are all bets off when it comes to policing the integrity of search engines now AI has taken hold?

 

Recognising emerging problems

Perth Now/AAP Bulletin Wire, 12 March 2024:

New rules for search engines will ban child abuse and terrorist content in Australia but will also seek to prevent abuse images being created by AI tools.

Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines will be required to prevent child sexual abuse and terrorist content appearing in search results under a code introduced to govern the industry.

The code will ban the companies' generative artificial intelligence tools being used to produce deepfake versions of the offensive material in one of Australia's first set of AI regulations.

The eSafety Commission launched the Internet Search Engine Services Code on Tuesday following months of negotiations with internet giants over the measures that had to be changed after the launch of generative AI tools.

The code will come into place alongside five other online safety codes covering areas from social media to app stores and will include penalties of up to $780,000 a day for companies that fail to comply with its provisions.

AI experts welcomed the code but said more restrictions and technological advances will be needed to stop the scourge of artificial "class one material" online.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the search engine code, created under the Online Safety Act, was an important addition to stop the spread of the "worst of the worst" content from being widely seen or shared.

"It helps ensure one of the key gateways to accessing material - through online search engines - is closed," she said.

"It will target illegal content and conduct, with significant enforceable penalties if search engines fail to comply."

The code dictates that search engines take "reasonable and proactive steps" to prevent public exposure to illegal content such as child abuse, pro-terrorism or extremely violent material, and provide tools to report instances of it.

The regulations also apply to "artificial intelligence features integrated into the search functionality that may be used to generate" illegal content - an addition Ms Ingram said had to be added to ensure it dealt with all relevant risks.

"The sudden and rapid rise of generative AI and subsequent announcements by Google and Bing that they would incorporate AI functionality into their internet search engine services all but rendered the original code drafted by industry obsolete," she said.

"What we've ended up with is a robust code that delivers broad protections for children."

Search engines will also be required to publish annual reports into illegal material found and removed from their services.

University of NSW AI Institute chief scientist Toby Walsh said removing the most offensive material from search engines was an important step and preventing its creation using AI tools was equally vital.

"These tools are, sadly, being used to generate such offensive and, in many cases, illegal content," he said

"Ever since generative AI tools became available, the (Australian Federal Police) have seen a significant uptick in the amount of such content... so it's definitely a real challenge."

Prof Walsh told AAP banning illegal AI-generated images would become easier after technological advances allowed content to be digitally watermarked but, until then, regulations were crucial to taking action against it.

"(The code) doesn't fix the problem because there are lots of other ways of accessing these tools ... but it's an obvious place to start," he said......

The Daily Telegraph, 18 March 2024, p.3:

The nation’s competition watchdog is putting search engines on notice, announcing plans to scrutinise the competitive nature and quality of popular services including Google and Bing.

The inquiry into the search engine giants, announced today, will call for consumers, businesses and experts to recall recent results and consider whether recent changes to laws in Europe have affected the results they see.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released an issues paper as part of its Digital Platform Services Inquiry.

Under the inquiry, the watchdog is continuing to put different aspects of consumer technology offerings under the microscope.

The new probe into search engines comes are new laws and regulations under consideration in the UK and Europe will require search engines to promote competition, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

“We’ve seen new laws introduced overseas that place obligations on so-called ‘gatekeeper’ search engines and the emergence of new technologies, like generative AI, that have changed the way consumers search for information online and may be impacting the quality of the service they are receiving,” she said.

The ACCC wants to know whether the general public still believes search engines are useful and whether they’ve noticed changes to the quality of the results they see.

The increased scrutiny arrives at a time when artificial intelligence is set to impact the way search engines perform. AI-powered search engines and tools are growing and these results aren’t influenced by the same advertising constraints and requirements as older search engines including Google. Social media platforms are also increasingly being used as a method of searching or finding visual results to queries, where answers to queries are often cut into short, attention-grabbing videos infused with marketing strategies.

Those allegedly taking advantage of the situation

The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 2024:

Liberal Party press releases and its website are showing up on the Google News tab as a source of information alongside queries about prominent current affairs searches, calling into question the technology giant's verification of news material, according to one of Australia's senior-most media and data experts.

Links to different media releases from the Liberal Party website show first in response to search with keywords "Labor position nuclear", "Labor and nuclear" or "Labor renewables" in Google News at a time when federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is pushing for Australia to adopt nuclear power.

Associate professor of news and political communication at Monash University Emma Briant said it "looks like a clear strategy by the Liberals to get political content listed as news to increase its credibility and visibility in the search engine".

Briant, who was also involved in exposing the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal, called on Google to be more rigorous in making sure material marked as news came from verified news organisations.

"It's too easy for those pushing persuasion and propaganda to take advantage of the high level of trust the public places in Google News - and it will only become more dangerous as campaigns can train AI to produce articles that more effectively game the system," she said.

The Liberal Party directed questions about the referral to Google.

Google declined to explain the Liberal Party's presence in the News tab but pointed to its "publisher help centre", which deems all publishers who comply with its news content policies eligible to appear within Google News.

Anyone generating news-related information, including press releases, can apply to have a dedicated page on Google News.

On its support page, Google says it uses "automated systems" to compile its news index, saying it "algorithmically discovers news content through search technologies".

Google plays a key role in the news ecosystem in Australia and globally. Google Search and News link people to publishers' websites more than 24 billion times each month, the company says.

Its algorithm can be a deciding factor in a website's traffic and its ability to drive revenue through advertising and subscriptions.

In 2021, the federal government implemented the news media bargaining code as a tool to bridge the power imbalance between digital platforms and news publishers.

Google says it is one of the world's biggest financial supporters of journalism. In Australia, it directly contributes more than $135 million to news organisations through deals agreed as part of the bargaining code per year.....

Harvard University's Nieman Lab for Journalism reported in February that Google has tested removing its News tab from search results.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an online practice that allows publishers to target keywords that are relevant to a story in order to attain a higher ranking in Google's search engine result pages.

New trial versions of Google Search use its AI bot Bard to present a summary response to a query, as opposed to links to relevant news sites. Google says the features can help users distil complex information into easy-to-digest formats. The features are yet to be fully rolled out across Google Search.

A spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland also declined to comment, saying "Google is best placed to explain how content surfaces on its news product".

The Australian Media and Communications Authority, which oversees the code for misinformation and disinformation was contacted for comment.

And those who thrive on creating their own brand of misinformation

Sky News, 22 March 2024:

Media Research Centre Contributing Writer Stephanie Hamill discusses researchers' discovery of 41 instances of election "interference" by Google since 2008.

"There's algorithms that seem to be in favour of the left," Ms Hamill told Sky News host James Morrow.

"And this report found that not only are they typically in favour of the left but they’re in favour of the most liberal candidate.

"So this goes as far back to 2008 and the researchers are saying that actually, Google may have interfered in the 2008 primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in support of Barack Obama.

“It’s a manipulation of the algorithm and they’re saying that it’s actually escalating and increasing as we go into 2024 in support of Joe Biden.”

Note:

Media Research Center states of itself:

Since 1987, the Media Research Center has worked successfully to expose and counter the leftist bias of the national news media, where now only a historically low 32% of Americans say they trust media to be fair and impartial. Alongside this effort, MRC leads the conservative movement in combatting the left’s efforts to manipulate the electoral process, silence opposing voices online, and undermine American values. 

This bad faith actor on the quasi-research centre scene was founded by L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative 'activist' whose son Leo Brent "Zeeker" Bozell IV 44, of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, was found guilty of 10 charges, including five felonies as a result of his actions during the 6 January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, when along with others he disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

Tasmania went to the polls today to elect the 35 members of its House of Assembly for the next four years. *vote count links*

A general election for the Tasmanian House of Assembly is being held today, Saturday 23 March 2024.

Tasmania has five state electorate divisions: Bass, Braddon, Clark, Franklin and Lyons. For each division, 7 members will be elected to serve a term of office of up to 4 years.

Voting is compulsory and polls close at 6pm tonight.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission will once again be hosting a tally room on polling night, in the Federation Ballroom at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, 1 Davey St, Hobart.

This event is open to the public, doors open at 6 pm. It is anticipated that results from polling places will be available from around 6:45 pm.

Antony Green's ABC Tasmania Election 2024 Guides at:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/tas/2024/guides

ABC News Channel live stream at:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/newschannel

TEC Progressive Results:

BASS https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2024/results/bass/index.html

BRADDON https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2024/results/bass/index.html

CLARK https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2024/results/clark/index.html

FRANKLIN https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2024/results/franklin/index.html

LYONS https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2024/results/lyons/index.html

TEC on X/Twitter at @ElectionsTas

Cartoons of the Week

Andrew Dyson

Cathy Wilcox

John Shakespeare

Alan Moir