Labor’s housing spokesman Josh Willie said the government had given no “plausible” reason for not releasing the quarterly figures.

“The current information shows in June the average waiting time for priority housing applicants was 60 weeks and 3,216 Tasmanians were stuck on the housing waiting list but that information is now unacceptably out of date,” he said.

“Sixty weeks is too long to wait and we know it crept up to 72 weeks last year.

“It’s reasonable to question what the government has to hide.”

A government spokesman said Mr Willie’s call was another “Labor conspiracy”.

“The latest housing data is not being withheld, it is being finalised and will be released soon,” the spokesman said.

“Communities Tasmania separated from the Department from Health in July last year.  Each separate Department releases their statistics independently from the other.”

Mr Willie said health data had been updated on time and he could not understand why the housing figures had not been updated from September.

“There is a tight private rental market and we know many vulnerable Tasmanians are sleeping rough, couch surfing and sleeping in cars because they cannot find housing.” he said.

“There is no plausible reason why this data is being hidden.”

He said the release of the data was important because it showed trends in meeting the needs of vulnerable Tasmanians.