A recording of federal Water Minister Barnaby Joyce skiting about the alleged theft of water by irrigators from the Murray-Darling Basin has increased calls for him to be stripped of the water portfolio.

After publicly likening the alleged theft to cattle or sheep rustling on Wednesday morning and saying the law should be enforced, Mr Joyce was recorded rubbishing the ABC Four Corners report on Thursday night while talking to irrigators in a Shepparton pub.

In doing so, he effectively confirmed he had made Malcolm Turnbull take water away from the environment portfolio and give it to him so he could protect upstream interests.

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"We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after you and make sure we don't have the greenies running the show basically sending you out the back door, and that was a hard ask," he said in the recording.

"A couple of nights ago on Four Corners, you know what that's all about? It's about them trying to take more water off you, trying to create a calamity. A calamity for which the solution is to take more water off you, shut more of your towns down."