News by MADURA MCCORMACK Premium Content Subscriber only A popular Central Queensland mayor has been headhunted to run for Federal Labor at the next election, in a major signal the party believes it has a fighting chance in the mining regions that abandoned it in 2019. The pick, Gladstone Council Mayor Matt Burnett for the seat of Flynn, could also have implications for the Townsville-based electorate of Herbert owing to a deal between Labor's left and right factions. Cr Burnett, who has served in local government since 2000, has been approached across numerous federal election cycles to run for Labor but is understood to have only acquiesced in recent weeks following discussions with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.