Touted as the City Deal, Mr Turnbull has matched Labor’s $150 million Utas funding pledge – giving the project bi-partisan support.

Mr Turnbull said the CBD project was about opening new markets and “ensuring Tasmanian cities realise their enormous potential as international hubs for both education and tourism”.

“This City Deal is about long-term jobs and economic development, revitalising cities and communities, and enabling students to have high quality education here so they can stay in Tasmania without having to move to the mainland,” he said.

Bass Liberal MHR Andrew Nikolic said the Coalition wanted to make Launceston a “more attractive and accessible place to work study, visit and live”.

“This redevelopment of the Launceston Utas campus will be a game changer for the city,” Mr Nikolic said.

“It will open up more opportunities for young people in Northern Tasmania to access higher education and make Launceston an attractive option for interstate and overseas students.

“We need a vibrant university that can produce a skilled workforce and provide an innovation base for industry through high quality research.”

The Utas project is expected to create more than 3000 jobs and $1.1 billion in economic activity during its construction phase.

The $18.1 million City Heart project is expected to create 138 jobs during construction and 317 direct jobs in the retail, tourism and services sectors within Launceston.

Labor announced its support for the Utas project almost two months ago, and pressure had been mounting on the Coalition to match it.

Mr Turnbull was due to visit Launceston to make annoucements when the floods hit, but the Liberals vowed to cease campaigning for 48 hours while the state recovered.