M1 funding tensions simmer as nods get met by shakes

Sometimes, it's the things that go unsaid that say everything.

As Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk presented a united front at the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Rail Line on Monday, underlying tensions were never far from view.

Never more so than when the topic of federal funding for Queensland infrastructure raised its head.

"We have done our homework (on Cross River Rail), we have the business case with the Prime Minister and what we have seen is that with the Gold Coast Stage 2 Light Rail, the Prime Minister worked collaboratively with the state government and with the council," Ms Palaszczuk said as she stood next to the Prime Minister.

"Today we've seen the product of that and I hope that we can work together in the future for projects such as the Cross River Rail and also the M1."

When pushed on the M1 funding, Mr Turnbull was insistent his government would not fund any more than 50 per cent of the cost of upgrading the road that connected Queensland's two biggest cities, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

"As you know, the history of the M1 financing, under both Labor and LNP, federal governments and state governments for that matter, has been 50-50," Mr Turnbull said.

"That's the basis on which it is proceeding."

Mr Turnbull was pushed on why the federal government funded road projects in New South Wales on an 80-20 basis with the Baird government, but was insistent on a 50-50 model for Queensland's M1.

The federal government's 80-20 funding split applied to nationally significant roads, such as the Bruce Highway for example, and on that basis, Mr Turnbull said, the M1 simply did not qualify.

"Well, it's a metropolitan road," the Prime Minister said.

"It is an urban road and as you know, that has historically been funded 50-50."

All the while, Ms Palaszczuk was at Mr Turnbull's left shoulder, shaking her head in disagreement, while local Coaltion MP Luke Howarth – leaning into shot for the television cameras – nodded enthusiastically.

Sometimes, politicians say it best when they say nothing at all.