The Bill Shorten bus has rolled into Townsville and it's staying for a while.
Armed with millions of dollars worth of promises and a pledge to spend a fair bit of his eight-week election campaign in the north Queensland city, the opposition leader has made it clear he wants the marginal seat of Herbert - bad.
"I will be a prime minister, if elected, who governs for all Australia, not just the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane," he declared on Tuesday.
Herbert stands to be one of Queensland's biggest funding winners from Mr Shorten's $3.8 billion boost to school funding in 2018 and 2019, receiving $48 million.
The electorate is also in line for another $100 million, with Labor promising a new Townsville stadium if elected.
It's a promise Labor made last year but Mr Shorten took the opportunity on Tuesday while standing on the pitch at the home of the NRL's Cowboys to question why the local coalition MP Ewen Jones wasn't willing to match the commitment.
"What sort of planet do you live on if you don't understand the value of 700 new jobs, if you don't understand the value to tourism and small business?"
"You don't have to be very long in Townsville to realise it is experiencing the downturn of the mining boom."
Unemployment is a big issue for the electorate, particularly given the recent collapse of Clive Palmer's Queensland Nickel refinery.
Louise Wilkinson, principal of Townsville's Heatley State School, says without Labor's promise to fully fund Gonski she might have to lose 18 staff members.
Her school got $320,000 in 2016 which has paid for three new teachers and 15 teacher's aides but they might have to be let go if Gonski funding does not continue beyond 2017.
In a school where almost 40 per cent of students are indigenous and 97 have a disability, that will hit hard.
"The loss of that would be significantly felt, that's for sure," Ms Wilkinson told AAP.
"It's quite problematic - it means the end of some very good programs that we've been able to do that we have got a lift from, and we've got evidence to show that."
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