State Election: Labor’s Bowen TAFE Agricultural Centre of Excellence not ‘appropriate’ fit

A multimillion-dollar pledge to build the Agricultural Centre of Excellence at Bowen TAFE has raised eyebrows in the Burdekin.

A MULTIMILLION-dollar pledge to build the Agricultural Centre of Excellence at Bowen TAFE has raised eyebrows in the Burdekin.

Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the $3.4m investment in Townsville on Thursday as part of a $100m promise to upskill Queenslanders.

While the centre of excellence is pegged as the new home of agricultural learning in North Queensland, Home Hill Chamber of Commerce David Jackson said it would have been a more “appropriate” fit for the Burdekin TAFE.

The investment, which is contingent on Labor winning the October 31 election, will include upgrades to the Bowen campus as well.

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Labor’s Burdekin candidate Mike Brunker said this would be an important step for providing skills and training for locals.

“The new facility will deliver high-quality training for the latest practices in innovative, sustainable agriculture and horticulture,” Mr Brunker said. “As technology rapidly develops, future workers in the agriculture industry will be trained to meet this trend.”

But Mr Jackson said a centre of excellence based in the Burdekin would be beneficial to the region’s biggest agricultural sectors.

“It would seem that such a facility would be more appropriate at the Burdekin complex, where it could also cover the sugar industry or at least use the industry background that is dominant in the area and which plays a major part in the agricultural industry in the Burdekin and throughout North Queensland,” Mr Jackson said.

“It also highlights what a loss to North Queensland the closure of the former Burdekin Agricultural College at Clare was many years ago, as that facility was providing for the agricultural education of many of North Queensland’s future farmers at the time.”

Mr Brunker had previously told the Home Hill Newsletter that the Queensland Government would invest $850,000 in maintenance and refurbishment of the Burdekin campus.

Labor also announced a $14.2m hydrogen and manufacturing facility at the Bohle TAFE and a $2m Aquaculture Training Centre at Cannonvale, supported by the Tassal aquaculture farm at Proserpine.

Ms Palaszczuk said her key focus in Townsville this election was creating more upskilling opportunities.

She said “jobs, jobs, jobs” was her signature push as the region recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the premier was unable to say how many jobs this project would create.

“The $100m investment today is about your children,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

It was about the people of Townsville and the families of Townsville, she said.

Originally published as State Election: Labor’s Bowen TAFE Agricultural Centre of Excellence not ‘appropriate’ fit