Labor seized on the government’s approach to the wily mammal during State Parliament on Tuesday, but copped criticism for focussing on foxes in question time and not the impending state budget.

Mr Rockliff told Parliament he was alerted to a fox sighting on the North West by a member of the public in February last year.

“I alerted the department when I received the information,” Mr Rockliff said.

“We followed that up with a constituent in the far North West.

“I did the responsible thing as any Tasmanian citizen would - whether you’re minister or shadow minister for primary industries or a Member of Parliament, or member of the community - you report it to the relevant authorities,” he said.

Opposition Leader Bryan Green said the investigation that followed cost about $10,000.

“Of course any sighting must be reported but the chain of events the Minister has admitted to today on the floor of the Parliament is utterly bizarre considering his often repeated views on the fox eradication program,” he said.

“At the same time this investigation was on-going, Mr Rockliff carried on with his determined effort to pull the Fox Eradication Taskforce apart and rubbish the work of Biosecurity officers involved.

“The bloke is so hypocritical he ought to just pack his bags.”

In a heated exchange in Parliament, Mr Rockliff hit back and labelled Mr Green “a joke”.

"This is budget week and you're talking about foxes, mate,” he said.

“Is that all you have?"

Labor also pointed the finger at the government for stating that abolishing the taskforce saved $1.5 million.

A ministerial briefing note placed the cost of the taskforce at $947,000.

Mr Rockliff said the former Labor government was resourcing the program at the expense of other areas of biosecurity. 

“The idea of creating Biosecurity Tasmania was to have an overarching, non-fragmented approach to biosecurity,” he said.

“This is an example of a reformed Biosecurity Tasmania, one that responds to sightings, detections and then hopefully not incursions.”

There’s been been 31 reported fox sightings in Tasmania this year.

“All reports from the public are taken in good faith but no physical evidence of foxes resulted from these reported sightings,” he said.

About $50 million has been spent on eradicating the animal from Tasmania.

The Fox Eradication Taskforce, established by Labor, was disbanded by the Liberals in 2014.

When he justified disbanding it, Mr Rockliff referred to foxes as imaginary.