Bob Katter says Brisbane has enough tunnels and overpasses. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "And Brisbane has millions upon millions worth of pleasure domes. What does North Queensland have? "Nothing. We have nothing. We struggle to fund even one road." The Palaszczuk Government has not made many commitments to the project, other than to have a business case delivered by the middle of the year and to set up a statutory authority to deliver it. But it does expect the project to create 1600 jobs every year over its five year construction period.

That was not enough to quell Mr Katter's frustrations with the announcement, who said that it was just "another example" of why North Queensland should be its own state. "And what does Queensland get from it?" he said. " We don't get one single job. If that money was spent on roads or development in North Queensland, then you'd get hundreds of jobs forever." Cairns MP Rob Pyne, who is now one of the power brokers of the Queensland Parliament following his defection to the cross bench, also expressed frustration at the proposed south-east spending. "They are building an underground rail link to make the commuter rail service better in Brisbane – we don't even have a commuter rail network," he said.

"They keep quoting the population figures, but how are we supposed to grow our cities, if we don't have the infrastructure to attract that growth? "I do understand the project and the need for it and I know it has been around for some time. But it is my job to highlight the comparative neglect in spending for Cairns and far north Queensland." The LNP labelled the project "another unfunded wish list item" and demanded to know where the funding was coming from. Acting Premier Jackie Trad couldn't answer that on Thursday, but did not take extending the state's borrowings off the table when it came to the state stumping up its part of any future funding agreement, only saying she would "not rule out or rule in" anything. "This is a government that is great at announcing projects they want to build, but history shows they are never actually able to get on with the job and deliver those projects," shadow infrastructure minister Tim Nicholls said.

Ms Trad said it was would work on chasing the funding once it had a business case – and a dialogue had already been opened with the Federal Government. But Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters also waded into the debate, questioning the possible inclusion of private operators to fund the project, and what that would do to cost. "Brisbane's already got some of the most expensive public transport fares in the world and we've seen what happened with the AirTrain for example, which is so expensive people don't tend to use it," she said. "It would be a real concern if we finally have the Cross River Rail built and then have the fares so incredibly expensive because it's been flogged off to a private operator." But those outside of politics, from the Australasian Railway Association to the Property Council of Australia to engineers, infrastructure groups and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland welcomed the movement on the plan – and the vow to keep politics out of it.

Loading If that is at all possible with a Federal Election just months away and $5 billion needed in funding. For independent news coverage, be sure to follow our Facebook feed.