Queenslander and Federal Nationals Leader Warren Truss has taken exception to the Prime Minister's alleged playing to southern stereotypes of the State, following reports that Kevin Rudd is fond of using the phrase "once you leave Brisbane and cross the Pine Rivers you can hear the sound of banjo music".

"Mr Rudd was three times given the chance by journalists in Brisbane today to deny making the comments which strongly suggest he thinks that more than two million Queenslanders are uneducated banjo-playing hillbillies," Mr Truss said.

"In each answer Mr Rudd claimed that he 'didn't even understand the reference', which is dissembling of the highest order.

"It is also not a denial, and certainly not an apology. If Mr Rudd has made these comments – which were attributed to him by his former party leader Mark Latham – then he is a disgraceful elitist."

The comments in question refer to the famous duelling banjos scene in the 1972 American film, Deliverance (as shown in the photo).

Mr Truss says Mr Rudd must either deny he has used the phrase or apologise to Queensland.

"This is an astonishing comment for a man born north of Brisbane, in Nambour, to make," Mr Truss said.

The furore is a result of a column in yesterday's Australian Financial Review written by former Labor Leader Mark Latham.

In it Mr Latham writes that Mr Rudd is fond of using the banjo phrase.

Mr Latham then goes on to link it with Mr Rudd's brand of "hillbilly economics" exposed in Tuesday's Federal Budget, which he says is typical of Queensland politicians.

Mr Truss says Labor has form on this sort of bush bashing.

"The last Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, used to say that 'if you're not living in Sydney, you're just camping out'," he said.

"Just this week, Labor's first Budget cut more than $1 billion out of funding for communications, infrastructure and agriculture in rural and regional Australia."