Mr Hodgman made the comments yesterday following the Council for the Economic Development of Australia forum in Hobart.

He used an address to business leaders from across Tasmania to spruik the Liberal government's achievements since taking the helm in March, and to justify harsh public sector job cuts.

Mr Hodgman told the forum the federal budget "shook us into a new reality that there's going to be a very serious discussion about reform of our federation".

Earlier this week CEDA released the report A Federation for the 21st Century, which recommended creating a national reform council to monitor serious suggestions for reform to the federation.

It also reminded Australians that any changes to the GST regime would be harder than they realised.

The report prompted Prime Minister Tony Abbott to tell Parliament that Australia should be able to have a "sensible, mature" debate about the GST as part of the federation reform and tax reform process.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine said Mr Abbott should "show us the money" because his state was being short-changed.

While Mr Hodgman said debate about federation was "absolutely critical", he said he would only be interested in a debate that saw Tasmania receive more GST.

"Let's have the discussion about who does what and who pays for it . . . but in terms of my position Tasmania should not be disadvantaged and we will fight every single step of the way to ensure that's the case," Mr Hodgman said.

"We're not going to approach this from a position of Tasmania being any worse off, I'm not going to waste my time for one second being involved in that debate," he said.