Tasmanian budget surplus dodgy: Labor

Two days before Tasmania's budget is handed down the state's Labor opposition is deriding a forecast surplus.

Liberal Premier Will Hodgman has reconfirmed Thursday's budget will include a yet-to-be-quantified surplus for the first time in seven years but his counterpart Bryan Green has already started unpicking the good news.

"Isn't your promise of a dodgy surplus dead in the water before the budget date even arrives?" Mr Green asked the premier during Tuesday's parliamentary question time.

He criticised the Liberal administration for shuffling funds, including $80 million out of the company - TT-Line - which operates the Bass Strait ferries, and into the government coffers as part of a ploy to prop up the budget.

The surplus also depends on public sector pay rates being limited to a two per cent rise, Mr Green said.

The premier said all will be revealed on Thursday and defended his government's actions.

"It's the result of prudent fiscal management," he said of the surplus.

Mr Hodgman stood by the public sector salary pegging while asking parliament's upper house to reject a proposed 10.5 per cent pay increase for parliamentarians.