The government has been under pressure to establish such an inquiry following revelations of sexual abuse perpetrated over years by pediatric nurse James Griffin on sick children at the Launceston General Hospital.

The Education Department earlier this year established an investigation into its dealing with child sexual abuse matters and more recently an investigation was launched into allegations of misconduct at Ashley Youth Detention Centre.

Mr Gutwein told a budget estimates committee on Monday he would soon recommend to Governor Kate Warner that a commission of inquiry into responses to child sexual abuse allegations by state institutions be formed.

He said the inquiry was expected to commence early next year and take 12 months to complete.

A commission of inquiry has the power to compel witnesses and will be conducted publicly.

Mr Gutwein told the committee he had been briefed on further cases of historic allegations of child sexual abuse involving current government employees.

He said one involved a teacher at a Northern Tasmanian school who had been stood down and a statewide mental health services staff member.

"Furthermore, I expect that as more claims for redress are progressed, there will be more shocking examples come to light," Mr Gutwein said.

"It has been forecast that Tasmanian claims for redress could be around 2000 people, of which around half are expected to relate to Tasmanian Government institutions."

Labor leader Rebecca White said public pressure had forced the government to establish the inquiry.

"What's been revealed over recent weeks is a series of horrific allegations that children were sexually abused in multiple settings," she said.

"This is the response needed by children, parents and staff of these government agencies, and they should not have had to wait this long.

"They have lost confidence in the system and need to have absolute faith that an inquiry will have the rigour necessary to identify failings in the system and set them right."

Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said the inquiry was overdue.

"It is clear the allegations that have come to light in recent months are just the beginning," she said.

"We have barely scratched the surface of a much deeper wound."

Australian Lawyers Alliance state president Sebastian Buscemi said the terms of reference for the inquiry must not be too restrictive.

"Recent inquiries in Tasmania have had restrictive terms of reference that seemed to avoid key problems at the heart of the issue," he said.

"We cannot learn from the mistakes of the past without knowing what those mistakes were so it is very important that the terms of reference for this inquiry do not limit its ability to uncover the truth and determine why this shocking abuse has occurred in so many government institutions."

Tasmanian Children's Commissioner Leanne McLean said the inquiry would lift the lid on child abuse matters and give survivors a voice.

"We want to find out what went wrong so we can do better," she said.

"This is a very important message for our children and young people to hear - that we want to keep them safer."

Head of Angela Sdrinis Legal, Angela Sdrinis, said the inquiry should be extended to cover other institutional settings like children in out-of-home care arrangements.

"We are currently pursuing and investigating some 200 claims where our clients are alleging abuse in care, but there is also crossover between abuse at school and/or in youth detention," she said.

"We see a high proportion of our Ashley clients who allege abuse in care before entering the juvenile justice system.

"We also see that a proportion of our clients who were abused by teachers end up in care or youth detention."