Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has called off a media event in northern Tasmania after being heckled by protesters from the state's health unions.

Mr Hockey arrived in Launceston this afternoon to board a boat and inspect the results of silt raking on the Tamar River.

He was greeted by about a dozen members of the Health and Services Union and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Union.

The protesters were angry about the possible closure of a Launceston rehabilitation unit, the John L Grove centre.

The facility will run out of federal funding next month and the nursing union has launched a petition to keep it open.

The protesters accused Mr Hockey of being too cowardly to speak with them.

Sorry, this video has expired Protesters target Joe Hockey press conference

Mr Hockey moved his scheduled media conference to the boat, where he was asked why there was no money in the budget to keep the John L Grove Centre open beyond next month.

"The previous Labor governments, state and federal, they just didn't provide any money," he said.

He did not speak with protesters but assured supporters of the John L Grove centre that their concerns had reached Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Mr Hockey told reporters the Prime Minister had been lobbied on the issue by the federal Liberal member for Bass Andrew Nikolic.

Mr Nikolic said the funding was not being cut but rather had only been committed for 18 months.

Shane Rickerby from the ANMF said no-one from the Federal Government had responded to their questions.

"We've written to Mr Nikolic twice, we've not had a response," he said.

"We managed to get that letter to him today and we're hopeful that he would take up our invitation to sit down and work through a strategy to save John L Grove."

Mr Hockey also cancelled his next scheduled media event - a walk through Launceston CBD to meet local business owners.