Tasmania’s parliament has passed a no-confidence motion in Premier Jeremy Rockliff, setting the stage for the fourth state election in seven years.

The motion brought by Labor leader Dean Winter passed by the barest margin, with Labor speaker Michelle O’Byrne casting a deciding vote.

Rockliff’s grip on power was lost after a marathon two-day debate finished on Thursday afternoon.

Winter brought the no-confidence motion following the Liberal minority government’s budget, winning the support of the Greens and three crossbenchers for an 18-17 vote.

Liberal MPs yelled out “weak” as the house divided for the vote.

Rockliff, who has been Premier since 2022, had conceded the numbers were against him but vowed to “fight to his last breath” and not resign.

In an emotional speech after the vote on Thursday afternoon, Rockliff accused Winter of a “coward’s action”.

“I would have preferred a battle of ideas … if I can call it in the nicest possible way, a bear-pit brawl on policy and ideas for the future of Tasmania,” he said.

“It would have been a fair fight. This is not a fair fight. This is a coward’s action.”

Earlier on Thursday, Rockliff said Tasmania did not want and could not afford an election.

“Be that on Mr Winter’s head. This has been a selfish grab for power. I have a lot more fight in me,” he said.

“The only job Mr Winter is interested in is mine. And I am not going anywhere.”

Winter, who has led state Labor since it lost last year’s election, said Tasmanians wanted to see the end of Rockliff and the Liberals, who have governed under three premiers since 2014.

“We are ready for an election,” he said, flanked by his caucus outside a substation in Mount Wellington’s foothills, a site chosen to press home arguments against privatisation.

“We will not stand by and let this Premier wreck our budget and sell the assets that Tasmanians have built.”

The vote passed just after 3.40pm on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear whether Rockliff would head to Government House to advise officials to dissolve parliament and head to an election.

Winter, who brought the no-confidence motion following a budget in deficit and forecasting a debt blowout of several billion, pushed back against Rockliff’s claims he opportunistically engineered the government’s demise.

“The Premier did confidence and supply agreements with the crossbench when he became premier … and it was up to him to hold those agreements together,” he said.

“He couldn’t do it. Those agreements have fallen apart.”

Tasmania last went to the polls just 15 months ago, in an election that returned the Liberals to power in minority with just 14 of 35 seats in the lower house. If Rockliff follows through on his threat to dissolve parliament, it will be the state’s fourth election in seven years.

During the marathon no-confidence debate, Labor has lashed Rockliff for delays and cost blowouts to the delivery of two new Bass Strait ferries.

Some crossbenchers and the Greens also have gripes with the proposed $945 million stadium for Hobart, a condition of the Tasmania Devils entering the AFL in 2028.

Labor supports the team and a stadium, a position it reiterated on Wednesday in writing to the AFL.

The Devils fear an early election would delay the stadium project and put the club’s licence at risk.

The Greens had dangled the prospect of forming a minority government with Labor. Winter has ruled that out.

-with AAP