Tasmanian budget debate sets up big week of parliament

After confirming the budget on Thursday last week, the state government now welcomes opposition parties - Labor and the Greens - to debate them, and even introduce their own rebuttal.

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Leader of the House Michael Ferguson said 18 hours had been set aside for the purpose of debate.

"This is a critical stage for the Liberal government, to deliver the budget, so we can deliver on our plan," he said.

"This week we'll go into what's called the second reading debate stage where other parties get their chance to say how they would do it differently."

"Doing it differently" typically means showing what priorities other parties have.

Mr Ferguson called on the Labor party to introduce an alternative budget, something he said they had not done for seven consecutive budgets, but opposition leader Rebecca White said it was only months ago the party released a budget.

"We delivered an alternative budget this year when we went to the election," she said.

"We offered up different policies and they were fully costed."

Ms White said the week of parliament should be spent focusing on the budget that had been unveiled last week.

"There is only one budget we should be scrutinising here - that's the Liberal budget. [We should be scrutinising] whether or not it is adequate to meet the needs of Tasmanians," she said.

"The reality is ... it has taken Tasmanians into more than $3 billion of debt."

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But Mr Ferguson was confident the budget was strong, and pointed to pass marks issued in response to it by ratings group S&P Global and ABS statistics showing the state's unemployment rate was 4.5 per cent - the equal second lowest, tied with Victoria and New South Wales.

Ms White said the government was floundering in "areas of most need" for Tasmanians including "housing, health and education", likely foreshadowing the areas of the budget her party would most closely take the magnifying glass to.

As part of Thursday's budget the government showed how it would spend in order to meet an election commitment to increase social and community housing in Tasmania by 3500 over four years, and Mr Ferguson said the government acknowledged more needed to be done to reduce a growing priority housing waiting list in the state.

Following the week of debate over the government's recently announced budget, parliament would resume for budget estimates, followed by a final vote on the budget the ensuing week.

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