The Opposition promises $9m for an EV training centre in Mackay

The election commitment is for a TAFE training centre at CQU in renewable energy production, including for hybrid diesel-electric marine engines.

It follows Labor’s peomise of $50m towards a new CQU campus in Cairns and $15m for marine ecosystem research at CQU Gladstone (CMM November 11 2021). Warren Entsch holds the Cairns‘ seat of Leichhardt for the coalition with a 4 per cent margin. Gladstone is in the safe conservative seat of Flynn, although the electorate generally goes with the state-wide swing, making it a chance for Labor if Queensland abandons the coalition.

Mackay is in the safe coalition electorate of Dawson but close to Capricornia, where the Labor vote collapsed in 2019 but which is generally marginal. With the party now only holding six seats in Queensland it is the sort of electorate Labor needs to win back if the state is to help deliver it government.

CQU Bundaberg should not get its hopes up, it’s in the seat of Hinkler which the Coalition held with 64 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2019.