Tasmania’s parliament has voted to urge the Liberal government to raise revenue in the May budget, despite the premier ruling out new or increased taxes.
A motion calling on the government to “accept the need to increase revenue” passed the lower house 19 votes to 13 on Wednesday with support from Labor, the Greens and all crossbench MPs except Carlo Di Falco.
The motion is not binding but puts the government on notice ahead of the 2026-27 budget, due on May 21.
Greens deputy leader Vica Bayley, who moved the motion, said the government should make “big corporations pay their fair share”.
He pointed to what he described as a contradiction from Treasurer Eric Abetz, who said in August that “all options are on the table”.
“… But it stands to reason that we have a very strong low tax proposition. That’s the sort of part of the DNA of the Liberal Party,” he said.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has since ruled out “new or increased taxes” in his state of the state address.
“We’re here to help and we want to help you change your DNA,” Bayley said.
The Greens proposed a range of measures, including higher mining royalties, new levies on the salmon industry, a vacant property tax and increased casino taxes.
Independent MP Kristie Johnston backed the motion, calling for changes including a lower payroll tax threshold, higher duties on luxury vehicles and the removal of poker machine tax concessions.
“Treasury said use all the levers. Saul Eslake said use all the levers. The credit rating agencies are saying the same thing in their own language,” Johnston said.
Fellow independents Peter George and Helen Burnet also supported the motion, urging the treasurer to tax the salmon industry’s profits from Tasmania’s waterways.
“Using the tax system wisely and to the advantage of the general populace rather than disadvantaging those who shouldn’t be disadvantaged is smart thinking,” Burnet said.
Labor backed the push, with shadow treasurer Dean Winter criticising crossbenchers who helped install the minority Liberal government after last year’s election.
“They were very upfront right from the start that they weren’t going to increase taxes, they weren’t going to look at revenue and that’s exactly what you are going to get,” he said.
“This government is going to cut the guts out of our public services.”
Winter said plans to cut 2,800 public sector jobs were “just the start”, pointing to Treasury estimates that $3.3 billion in savings would be needed over four years.
Abetz dismissed the motion, saying he thought it was “an April Fools’ joke” when he heard the Greens were there to help.
“I thought that was a quaint line, a cute line, but with great respect … I don’t think it is of any significant help to us or the government or the people of Tasmania,” he said.
He said even a 10% increase across all state taxes would lift revenue by only about 3%.
“It would hardly touch the sides of the task which is before us,” he said, describing such a move as “hypothetical” and “not government policy”.
The vote follows Treasury’s 2026 Fiscal Sustainability Report warning state debt could reach $146 billion by 2040 without corrective action.
Tasmania’s credit rating was downgraded last year by Moody’s and S&P, while the International Monetary Fund has raised concerns about the state’s finances.
In a separate vote, the lower house also passed a Labor motion ordering the treasurer to release detailed savings and staffing data by April 14, which the government did not oppose.
