Tasmania's moment of budget reckoning has arrived as the state government unveils across-the-board cuts to tackle mounting debt.
On Thursday, Treasurer Eric Abetz revealed the state will post a $597 million deficit in the coming financial year off the back of $216 million of cuts.
No department is spared, including health - the state's biggest line item - where $131 million worth of savings have been found 2026/27 alone.
The government argues this is offset by an uplift from Canberra, but the raw figures show shrunken appropriations to hospitals, emergency departments and mental health services.
The bureaucracy will also be targeted with 1700 job losses planned across the government through attrition and voluntary redundancies.
There has been no guarantee to spare frontline services from cuts.
