The federation debate continues - but Premier Campbell Newman wants it to turn from a discussion about taxation back to responsibilities.
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Prime Minister Tony Abbott reignited the issue on the weekend, when he called for a "mature debate" about tax reforms, in order for all states to receive "a fair go".
His comments have been taken as a call to raise the GST, which has made some of the state's baulk.
Mr Newman said the debate needed "clarity".
"I think it is an area that we could do a whole lot better and get better clarity if we wanted to sit down and have a meaningful discussion about federation," he said.
"I strongly support the Prime Minister putting this whole thing on the agenda, I've said this before.
"What I'm concerned about is sadly, it's turned into a discussion about tax. It shouldn't be about tax, it should be about responsibilities, defining those respective responsibilities, the levels of government, then focusing on what they're meant to do and getting the funding share to fulfil those responsibilities for the community."
Mr Newman, who has long called for reform and the end of duplication, said he believed there was a "better way of doing it if we want to have a real go at reforming our Federation".
"There have been university studies - and don't ask me to name the sources today offhand - but a couple of universities have done studies on this," he said.
"They nominate that the savings annually, recurrent savings through a reform of the Federation through cutting out waste and duplication would be in the order of $20-85 billion dollars a year. So if you think about that lower estimate - $20 billion, the Queensland share nominally could be about $4 billion and that's compared to a $50 billion a year budget.
"It's up there, you know, getting up around 8 per cent, and it doesn't involve an extra tax burden on Queenslanders and other Australians.
"Just through Governments defining what they should be doing, sorting out those matters, cutting waste in efficiency and actually then delivering frontline services."
The Green Paper on reforming the Federation is due before the middle of next year, after the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland election.
