MDBP 'pause' unwarranted: Xenophon

But he said demanding a pause on the Murray Darling Basin Plan’s implementation was going “overboard” and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.

Senator Xenophon’s seven crossbench colleagues demanded the “pause” this morning while a current Senate-select Committee inquiry into the Plan’s impacts is ongoing, amid concerns about impacts of record high water prices of $300 per megalitre on farm production.

“I support the position that when it comes to water, when it comes to the Murray Darling Basin, the food bowl of the country and one of the great environmental icons of this nation, that you need to have the balance right, between the environment and the economy,” Senator Xenophon he said.

“Unless you have a healthy environment in the Murray Darling, unless you have healthy environmental flows, then you won’t be able to have strong regional communities that rely on agriculture.

“Calling for a pause to the Basin Plan is really in my view going overboard.

“What is always needed is to always rationally, carefully, assess the Murray Darling Basin.

“It was hard fought for, which the Coalition made a number of suggestions and amendments, under the former Labor government.

“I think that any talk about getting rid of the Basin Plan or pausing or stalling the Basin Plan is really a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

Senator Xenophon’s crossbench colleagues also backed federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce holding water policy responsibilities in the new ministerial arrangements, rather than Assistant Minister Anne Ruston.

But Senator Xenophon said he had "full confidence in the arrangements that have been made” with Mr Joyce as the Agriculture Minister.

“Anne Ruston as the Assistant Minister does have particular carriage of the issue of water,” he said.

“She is a South Australian who has a background in irrigation she understands the importance of irrigation to regional communities.”

Senator Xenophon said it should not be an either, or argument about whether farmers or the environment have priority, in the allocation of water during the Basin Plan’s implementation.

“Unless you have healthy environmental flows, you won’t have the water for the irrigators,” he said.

“We need to get the balance right.

“I think we’ve got the balance right.

“We’ve been through this debate before - very happy for my crossbench colleagues to call for more vigilance – but really, calling for a stall on the Murray Darling Basin Plan is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

Mr Joyce is due to meet with Mr Turnbull today to discuss allocation of the final Ministerial Charter Letters, and the move of Water policy into Agriculture from the Environment ministry, as per the new Coalition agreement signed last month.

He has asked that Senator Ruston hold responsibility for horticulture and wine and forestry and fisheries but the final outcome remains unclear.

The issue was raised by SA Labor Senator and former Water Minister Penny Wong during a heated session in Senate question time yesterday.

Mr Joyce’s former Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture in the Abbott regime, Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck, played down the issue of the new portfolio allocations.

“As I understand it, the charter letter from the Prime Minister has not been finalised yet, but the arrangements between Minister Joyce and Assistant Minister Ruston will be finalised,” he said.

“As we all understand, a cabinet minister ultimately has responsibility for all elements of the portfolio, and in that context ultimately Minister Joyce is responsible for the elements of the water portfolio that are within his portfolio.

“The important thing for water and for Australia is that water is under the responsibility of the Coalition and not the opposition.

“Whether Minister Joyce and Senator Ruston have agreed to some arrangements about the overall management of water within the portfolio is a matter for them and the Prime Minister.

“I am sure that those arrangements will be finalised in due course.”

Senator Wong has questioned Mr Joyce's track record on water management and pointed to concerns held in South Australia of his ability to balance environmental outcomes, in the Basin Plan

“This has got the Nationals going, hasn't it?” she said.

“How can people in my home state have any confidence that he will make decisions in their best interests?”

NSW Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan interjected in the questioning saying Senator Wong “knows this, that she completely ballsed it up”.

Senator Colbeck added to the commentary saying, “On the record of water: Senator Wong should not raise the record of purchases of water or anything to do with water in this place, because her record is absolutely abysmal”.

“In fact, her record in purchasing water and the mistakes that she made in purchasing water when she was in that portfolio were a perfect entree into her role as Minister for Finance and Deregulation, where she has a reputation for having been one of the worst finance ministers ever,” he said.

Senator Wong told media today that when she was Water Minister and Mr Joyce was her Shadow he “famously told South Australians to move where the water is; we know what his priorities are”.

She said the Basin Plan was important as is securing Adelaide’s water supply and it had to be recognised that there are “environmental limits” on the water that can be taken out of the river system.

Senator Wong said Mr Turnbull had “sold out” by giving water policy to Mr Joyce.