Federal Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said in Launceston yesterday that the Liberals would contribute the money for cleaning up the Tamar.

The money would be available as soon as there was a federal Liberal government.

"This is one of the great environmental jewels of Australia and it has been allowed to be tarnished by the inaction of Labor and the Greens," Mr Hunt said.

He was in town to see the Tamar estuary's silt problem first-hand.

Mr Hunt pulled on gumboots to join state Opposition Leader Will Hodgman in the mud at low tide, shovelling what the Liberals said was the first silt removed from the Tamar River for 12 months.

"The state government has made financial commitments that they are not delivering on, allowed environmental permits to lapse and allowed this river to become an increasing social and environmental tragedy for the city of Launceston," Mr Hodgman said.

Deputy Premier Bryan Green said earlier this week that he would check to see if any of the government's promised $1 million for dredging had yet been spent.

He said that the government was committed to its share of Launceston's flood levee building project because that was what the Launceston City Council had identified as its priority.