2025/26 interim Tasmanian Budget wrap-up

On Thursday 6 November 2025, Treasurer, the Hon Eric Abetz MP, handed down the interim Budget.

This interim Budget was at its core simply a vehicle for the Government to bide time — a repeat of what we saw in May — but this time with a thinly veiled warning of the need to find savings and efficiencies.

TasCOSS remains concerned about the ability of our industry to meet the increasing level of need for community services, with the Treasurer intent on reducing expenditure.

Equally, we remain concerned at the level of debt we are taking on to fund infrastructure projects that could be deferred and the impact this has on the amount of funding available to deliver essential services to Tasmanians.

This comes amid new research that finds one-in-seven Tasmanians are living in poverty, along with rising levels of housing stress and energy unaffordability.

Community services represent a small fraction of the state’s total budget, but this investment prevents the need for higher expenditure across other portfolios, such as health, justice and education.

As we look to the budget next year, which has been confirmed for Thursday 21 May 2026, we urge the Treasurer to take a balanced approach to budget repair by considering a mix of revenue raising and targeted investment that prevents costly crises, not through cuts that guarantee them.

We believe further cuts to the community services industry should be the last resort for budget repair.

We’ve collated feedback and reactions to the interim Budget from the Tasmanian Coalition of Community Service Peaks, which you can view at the following links:

TasCOSS 2025/26 Interim Tasmanian Budget Information Session materials
I’d like to use this opportunity to thank everyone who attended today’s 2025/26 interim Budget information session.

It was excellent to hear from Dr Robert Hortle (Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania) about spending trends and policy solutions that address both the underlying budget pressures and the needs of the community services industry.

If you missed the session or want a refresher, please download TasCOSS’s 2025/26 Interim Tasmanian Budget Briefing presentation slides (PDF, 576KB), Robert’s presentation slides (PDF, 1.58MB) and watch the recording (YouTube).

Also, be sure to check out the Tasmanian Policy Exchange’s Policy In My Backyard (PIMBY) series. If you would like to stay up-to-date with new PIMBY articles, please subscribe to the mailing list. You can also suggest new topics for investigation. 

TasCOSS will continue to monitor the progress and implementation of budget-related initiatives. If you or your organisation have a specific area of interest that you would like to bring to our attention, please contact Stephen Durney, Senior Policy Officer, on (03) 6169 9508 or email Stephen.

*Upcoming* End-of-Year Industry Gathering with the Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP, Minister for Community and Multicultural Affairs
A reminder to register to join us for an end-of-year industry gathering to reflect and celebrate the contributions of the community services industry in 2025 at AURA Hobart on Wednesday 26 November. Find out more and register now!

More 2025/26 interim Budget analysis and information: