The state’s politicians will receive a 10.5 per cent pay increase, after the Legislative Council rejected a motion to disallow it.
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The disallowance motion was voted down eight votes to six, following an almost six-hour-long debate.
Labor MLCs Josh Willie and Craig Farrell, Liberals Vanessa Goodwin and Leonie Hiscutt and Independents Rosemary Armitage and Rob Valentine voted to support the disallowance.
Ms Armitage said she was not comfortable voting for herself to receive a pay increase, while the Labor and Liberal MLCs said the increase was out of touch with community expectations.
Mr Valentine told the chamber his position would be formed based on what he heard during the debate, but had some sympathy towards tying MP’s salaries to the wage-price index.
Previously undecided Mersey MLC Mike Gaffney said he had not found the case to support the motion very convincing.
“I like others in this place do not want any involvement, now or in the future, in determining my own salary or conditions,” he said.
A number of Independents criticised the major parties for voting to disallow the pay increase, with Western Tiers Greg Hall accusing leaders of engaging in “petty populism”.
Rosevears MLC Kerry Finch said Legislative Councillors had been made “fall guys”, and Rumney MLC Tony Mulder questioned what was meant by community expectations.
“The community expectation is we will not have our hands on the lever, yet time and time again we do it,” Mr Mulder said.
Mr Hall said it was “nonsense” for the government to move for salary determinations to be made by the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, “only to pay lip service to it”.
As part of the 2015 Parliamentary Salaries, Superannuation and Allowances Amendment Bill, both houses of Parliament reserved the right to disallow a pay increase recommended by the TIC if it was deemed out of touch with community expectations.
A number of MLCs said they were comfortable with the TIC’s recommendations that MP salaries become tied to the wage price index following the initial pay rise.
Attention will now shift to major party MPs who have pledged to reject the pay rise or donate it to charity if it were passed.
