Tasmania has been labelled a loser in the latest federal budget but Premier Will Hodgman insists a $730 million hospital funding deal is the envy of other states and territories.
Most importantly, the Liberal leader said Scott Morrison's plan revealed no surprises for the state, referring to the gutting 2014 budget which left his leadership reeling.
"I was premier when we were surprised by a Commonwealth budget and we've done everything we can since then to work constructively, to lobby very hard on behalf of our state," Mr Hodgman told reporters on Wednesday.
Canberra's $730 million, decade-long funding envelope for Tasmania's northern Mersey Community Hospital, announced in April, remained the headline act for Tassie in the budget, plus money for ongoing road and freight rail infrastructure projects.
"I know from discussions I've had with my colleagues interstate and at a national level, other states are very envious, in fact a little bitter, that Tasmania was able to secure such a strong deal," the premier said of the hospital agreement.
He cited up to a billion dollars worth of federal investment in Tasmania in recent months and added there is further scope for the state to dip into nationwide funds for projects such as light rail.
Tasmania's state and federal Labor MPs said the Hodgman government failed to fight for a fair share of the budget.
"While other states will receive billions for investments in infrastructure, Tasmania's share is virtually non-existent," state Labor opposition leader Rebecca White said.
"The long list of infrastructure priorities for the state have been ignored."
There was no mention of the new $535 million four-lane Bridgewater Bridge to be built over Hobart's Derwent River, for which Canberra has previously promised to foot the bill, and is due to start construction in 2019-20.
Tasmania's ageing water and sewerage infrastructure was also left off the federal finance agenda, and there was no allocation for job-creating tourism proposals in regional parts of the state where unemployment remains dire.
The state's vulnerable and students will suffer under the budget plans, Greens' leader Cassy O'Connor said.
"In a state with around a third of all people reliant on Commonwealth support, the cruel and ideological attack on welfare recipients will hit hard.
"Savage cuts of $1.8 billion in the (2014) Abbott budget have not been reversed or mitigated, another failure of the Hodgman Government to advocate for the state."
