A police raid on a Queensland irrigation farm has reignited calls for a royal commission into how the Murray-Darling Basin is being managed.
The raid was part of a months-long major criminal investigation into the use of Commonwealth funds.
"It strengthens the need for a royal commission," crossbench senator Nick Xenophon told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
He's unhappy a Senate estimates hearing into water issues, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed.
"We want to get that back on track because that was part of the prime minister's undertaking to me that we would have that extra level of scrutiny through the Senate estimates process," Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has called for various investigations to be combined into one royal commission.
But cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said it was all about politics for the premier, and never about policy solutions.
"Law enforcement agencies are already on the case," he told reporters.
"The fraud that is alleged to have occurred is being investigated - a demonstration in many ways the safeguards are actually working."
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said the Murray-Darling Basin Plan had been undermined since Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce took responsibility for the water resources portfolio.
"Every new allegation, every scandal, every investigation surrounding water theft is part of the same growing story that the health of the rivers are losing out," he said in a statement.
Labor supports calls for a judicial inquiry through the Council of Australian Governments.
"There needs to be an active arm's length investigation capable of reaching every jurisdiction relevant to the basin," Mr Burke said.
