The latest fox-catching project agreement was signed off by the former Labor state government in February 2014 and allows for $500,000 a year to be administered by Biosceurity Tasmania to respond to any public reports of fox sitings.

And there-in lies the problem. Under the terms of the funding agreement, the $2 million must be spent on looking for foxes and making sure they don't cross Bass Strait.

The state Liberal government is understood to be negotiating with their federal counterparts to have the agreement's parameters altered so the funding can be used more broadly within cash-strapped Biosecurity Tasmania, with staff already threatening overtime work bans due to workload disputes.

However, the federal environment department says it hasn't received a formal request to vary those parameters.

Turn the clock back to 2001, when the state and federal governments of the day set up a fox taskforce to track and trap elusive foxes in Tasmania.

The government spent $50 million on the highly controversial Fox Eradication Program only to discover after 13 long years that there was no conclusive evidence of a fox invasion.

Last year, an independent report found "serious deficiencies in the data and analysis" used to justify the program.

Then how, even after the fox program has been scrapped, are we justifying spending $2 million to eradicate a pest that most likely never existed in the first place?

Surely, diverting the funds back into Biosecurity Tasmania's control will help tackle genuine threats, such as feral cats, at a time when the division of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment is desperate for more funding.

So as those lengthy negotiations to change the funding parameters drag on, it is about time someone asked: what's the hold-up?