Last week, Daryl Cook, 38, was detained in a mental health facility indefinitely after he stabbed a North Hobart shopkeeper to death in broad daylight one day after he had been released from Risdon Prison on remission.

A bill, which passed the House of Assembly on Tuesday, will remove eligibility for remission of a sentence for offenders who join the prison system after the new laws commence.

Attorney-General Elise Archer said the outdated practice of remissions in Tasmania was out-of-step with community expectations and did not reflect truth in sentencing.

“The granting of remission has been phased out in every other state in Australia,” she said.

She said the release of Cook on remission had prompted a review of the state’s remission policy which resulted in a decision to abolish early releases under that practice.

Labor justice spokeswoman Ella Haddad said the party did not support automatic remissions.

But she said Labor supported the principle of remissions as a behavioural management tool to encourage discipline and good conduct which, in turn, made correctional officers safer.

Ms Haddad said there was no link between a reduction of remissions and a reduction of offending or improved community safety outcomes.

“It is playing politics to say that remissions are part of community safety,” Ms Haddad said.

She said the government instead needed to boost funding and resources in rehabilitative programs.

Amendments moved by Labor to allow for more flexibility in granting remissions, which were supported by the Greens, were rejected by the government.

Ms Archer said there was a prisoner contract system in place within the prison service which allowed for certain incentives and entitlements when obligations were met.

She said privileges included additional visits, recreational opportunities, and cell property like gaming consoles. 

Ms Archer said there were several intervention and offender treatment programs in the prison system which dealt with sex offending, addiction, and domestic violence and aggression. 

"Any suggestion that there is underinvestment in rehabilitation programs is simply untrue," she said.

Greens justice spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the bill had not changed since the party rejected it last year.

"What this Liberal government is doing is with their increasing punitive legislative agenda is to continue down a path of a populist, tough-on-crime approach that is not effective because it is not based on evidence," she said.