Scott Morrison has announced a $50 million election commitment for the NSW Hunter and Sydney regions to develop new technology for the energy sector.
The research partnership between the University of NSW and the University of Newcastle is expected to create 1600 new jobs in the next four years, and the universities and industry collaborators will co-invest more than $220 million.
The two universities will work with 27 industry partners in the two regions to develop new solar, hydrogen, storage and green metals technology.
It comes as a YouGov poll commissioned by The Australian, based on a survey sample of almost 19,000 voters across all 151 lower house seats, found Treasurer Josh Frydenberg would lose his seat if an election were held today.
Mr Frydenberg, who is touted as the next Liberal leader, is fighting to keep the electorate of Kooyong in Melbourne’s east against so called “teal” independent Monique Ryan who is leading the race 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis.
Mr Morrison dismissed the polling when he was grilled during a press conference on Wednesday and asked who would be the next treasurer if the party lost the seat.
“That is not something I’m speculating on … Josh Frydenberg will be my treasurer,” he said.
“I still don’t know who Anthony Albanese’s defence minister is going to be, I don’t know who his home affairs minister is going to be.”
Mr Morrison said the clean energy investment would “turbo charge” existing investments in hydrogen and create jobs around Australia, particularly in the Hunter.
“A strong economy needs the collaboration and partnerships of our university sector, our scientific community and our entrepreneurs who can make it all happen,” Mr Morrison said.
The coalition is targeting the Hunter electorate after the retirement of incumbent Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon.
Mr Fitzgibbon, who remains outspoken on Labor’s position on coal, held the mining-rich seat on a three per cent margin.
Both the prime minister and Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce have made frequent trips to the region, spruiking the coalition’s support for coal mining jobs and branding Labor’s energy policy a risk to the region’s economy.
Mr Morrison started Wednesday in the nearby electorate of Shortland, within the Hunter region, which is held by Labor on a 4.4 per cent margin.
The Liberals are under pressure to pick up outer suburban seats with new polling showing it faces losses in inner city electorates.
The polling also shows Liberal Tim Wilson could narrowly lose his Melbourne seat of Goldstein to independent Zoe Daniel but, the Liberals were likely to retain Wentworth, North Sydney and Mackellar in NSW, the YouGov poll found.
Meanwhile, a Roy Morgan poll shows Labor is comfortably ahead of the Liberal-National coalition by nine percentage points on a two-party preferred basis.
The election is on May 21.
