Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson says election pledges 'transparent'

At a press conference on Monday, Mr Ferguson was asked whether the state government had been transparent enough with the pledges, following revelations of conflicts of interest for some of the recipients.

One such recipient was St Vincent de Paul, which received funding despite the former chief executive Lara Alexander standing as a candidate for the party. She was since elected.

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Mr Ferguson said it was "absolutely appropriate" political parties indicate its future spending priorities.

"And my challenge for those commentators would be to tell us which of those projects that we committed and were transparent and open about shouldn't have funded," he said. He said the grants were about "good infrastructure projects" that would make Tasmanians lives better across the state.

It's not the first time the Tasmanian Liberals grants have come under scrutiny, with an Integrity Commission report in 2018 finding more than $21 million of taxpayer-funded grants pledged by the party were allocated without accountability.

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The commission found most of the grants were announced by Liberal candidates directly to stakeholders at events hosted by the recipients.

"There was no process - competitive or otherwise - to determine whether the pledged funds were really needed, or whether they were a good use of public money," the report reads.

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Mr Ferguson said the grants had been announced on social media and "in a public way".

"If there were concerns or people didn't like them then they can vote for somebody in a different party and so that is the political process, there's nothing new or innovative or strange about it.That's the longstanding practice," Mr Ferguson said.

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