Premier Will Hodgman and treasurer Peter Gutwein detailed the stimulus package, which includes a $60 million loans program for council-initiated projects, at a Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry function in Launceston on Tuesday morning.

It also features a raft of funding being brought forward for tourism, industry, schools and affordable housing projects devised to help combat the North’s employment rate which was 7.7 per cent in August.

Northern councils will begin investigating their option immediately, but Opposition Leader Bryan Green said the package had fallen well short of expectations.

“The government gave Tasmanians the impression it was about to pump $100 million of new money into the northern economy,”  he said. “Instead we’ve got a grab bag of previously announced spending commitments and interest-free loans for local government.”

Greens member for Bass Andrew Dawkins said the investment is too little too late, and the plan should have had extensive community consultations and workshops. 

“Any plan to address the economic and employment decline in the North needs to look at long term sustainable growth and cannot be addressed by a Band-Aid solution” she said.

Mr Gutwein said the stimulus package will underpin private sector investments and would have both social and economic outcomes immediately.