Over the years it became an argument for their ongoing assault on the resources sector. Protecting our environment was - and still is - said to be critical to the integrity of our brand and to attracting visitors.

It was always questionable though whether the Greens really cared for tourism, or if it was just a convenient excuse.

In more recent years, this latter, somewhat cynical, perception has been reinforced by commentary that can hardly be seen to be supportive of our visitor economy.

On Monday, for example, Greens leader Cassy O'Connor fired off an attack on a peak industry body's call for government assistance in response to the coronavirus.

Ms O'Connor first slapped Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO Luke Martin on Twitter and then followed up with a media release headed "No Case for Taxpayers to Bail Out Tourism Businesses".

"Luke Martin and the TICT are clearly advocates for privatising the profits of the industry but socialising the losses," she claimed in an over the top spray.

Mr Martin rightly pointed out the government-imposed travel ban was stopping Chinese tourists from visiting our country, which, while not impacting the industry generally in Tasmania, had "hit very hard ... a small number of tourism businesses".

In such circumstances, it was not considered "unusual, unreasonable, or unprecedented" to ask for assistance, he said.

Highlighting the divide between the Greens leader and the industry, Mr Martin said in his statement: "We know Cassy O'Connor never has anything good to say about tourism these days."

Unfortunately, he seems to have a point.

Ms O'Connor's accusation of "privatising the profits" ignores the fact that businesses in the tourism industry do employ a great many Tasmanians and do pay their taxes.

Her comments were disrespectful to the industry, and suggest the party is no longer even making a pretense of being interested in balance and compromise, or the Tasmanian economy and jobs.