It was the first time the government had lost a vote in the house since Premier Peter Gutwein came to power, with independent Madeleine Ogilvie and Ms Hickey voting with Labor to support the motion from the Greens.

Mr Pearson, who founded the Cape York Institute, wrote to Mr Gutwein in August to outline the scheme which involves the government acting as an employer of last resort to provide a minimum wage job to anyone willing and able to work.

The jobs would be in areas "broadly understood to be public good", such as in community transport, education, environmental services, public works and community infrastructure, with local councils acting as the intermediary.

Mr Gutwein responded to the letter by encouraging Mr Pearson to make a submission to his Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council.

"My government appreciates your commitment to improving employment opportunities for Australians," he wrote.

Read more: Jobs for all: could a government-funded Job Guarantee be Australia's answer to unemployment?

On Thursday, Mr Pearson again wrote to party leaders offering a briefing on his proposal, and congratulated Greens leader Cassy O'Connor on bringing the matter to the parliament.

"We were excited to see you move such an important motion," he wrote to Ms O'Connor.

Mr Pearson is now lobbying for Tasmania to become a trial site for a "place-based trial" of the scheme, targeting "areas that desperately need a new approach" to employment.

He uses modelling from the Centre for Full Employment, based on research by Professor Bill Mitchell at the University of Newcastle, to argue that the investment by government into the scheme would repay itself by improving the productive capacity of the economy.

During the debate on Wednesday, Ms O'Connor said it was clear that Australia needed to rethink its approach to unemployment and underemployment, and a job guarantee was the place to start.

"As a nation and as a decent, compassionate society we need to embrace a jobs guarantee," she said.

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"We are going to have to because we need to fix up this country's degraded landscape and start properly investing in people's wellbeing. We also need to let young people know we believe in them and we are going to change the system so it works for them."

Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson said such an idea would require "a complete rewrite of the economy".

Labor finance spokesperson David O'Byrne said the trends of casualisation, contract work and precarious employment had caused "massive waves of inequality and appalling outcomes" for Tasmania, and he supported the idea of a job guarantee.