Education Minister Simon Birmingham was in Burnie yesterday announcing $750 000 for five welding simulators, “to train and skill-up local welding apprenticed and workers from Tasmanian businesses.” A by-election campaign in Burnie’s federal seat of Braddon you say? Good lord, who would have thought!

The University of the Sunshine Coast starts construction on its Moreton Bay campus tomorrow, at Petrie – near the electorate of Longman, where there is also an election.