Treasurer Peter Gutwein hinted at the upcoming announcement while visiting the city spruiking the state government’s TasWater takeover.

“Obviously the combined system is something that has been talked about for awhile, we know that last year there was a scoping study that put a pricing on it of somewhere between $300 to nearly $600 million and in the City Deal we will have more to say on the way forward,” he said.

Meanwhile at its Monday meeting, the City of Launceston unanimously supported a motion calling for leadership from the state government regarding river health of the Tamar Estuary.

Alderman Emma Williams said key stakeholders needed to resolve strategic and financial commitments to a series of evidence-based priority projects.

She said the council must make a clear statement of its belief that the Tamar was a social, economic and environmental issue.

“We need to change the language that we use around the Tamar, we need to stop talking about it as something that needs to be fixed. The river is not the problem, what we have done to it and continue to do it is what is wrong with it,” she said.

Deputy Mayor Rob Soward said the community was desperate for a way forward and for politics to be taken out of the issue.

“There’s a huge body of work out there on the Tamar, we don’t do reports to sit on the shelf and gather dust and I think it it is time to put those things into action.”