This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Turnbull government’s legislative agenda is in doubt after Barnaby Joyce rejected a deal to release 450 gigalitres of environmental water to South Australia, a stand which may jeopardise Nick Xenophon’s votes on other legislation.

The deputy prime minister wrote to the South Australian water minister Ian Hunter on Thursday night to tell him that it was not possible to deliver the 450 gigalitres without hurting other people and local economies along the river.

In a heated Murray Darling Basin ministerial meeting on Thursday night, Hunter reportedly told Joyce to “fuck off” and called fellow Labor Victorian water minister Lisa Neville a “cunt” before going out for an ice cream.

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The breakdown of the meeting and subsequent letter signals that the federal government will not provide South Australia with the extra 450 gigalitres agreed to under the Rudd-Gillard Labor government.

“If it was genuinely possible to put an additional 450 gigalitres down the river without hurting people, then none of us would have a problem with it,” Joyce wrote.

“The reality is that it will.”

Joyce wrote he believed the ministers were heading into a “protracted and unresolvable stalemate” given all the other competing interests combined with the legislative requirements.

He told South Australia there would be “deeply concerning outcomes” if further water was removed from the basin.

Joyce later told the media his letter was a simple statement of fact that the 450 gigalitres could not be delivered by 2024 if there is a social and economic detriment.

But his message has been delivered just prior to the last sitting weeks of parliament.

Xenophon is one of the key crossbenchers in the senate and wields three votes. He told Guardian Australia that Joyce’s decision was a “very disturbing development” and refused to rule out withdrawing support for other legislation on the government’s agenda.

Those bills include the double dissolution triggers – the registered organisations bill and the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill – as well as superannuation reforms and the backpacker tax bill.

If the backpacker bill does not pass over the next fortnight, the agricultural sector will be left in limbo before the proposed 1 January start date which would see a default tax rate of 32.5% for all backpackers.

Furthermore, the government has yet to even release its $48bn corporate tax bill.

“Joyce has reneged on a deal based on the science which says that you cannot have a healthy agricultural sector without a healthy river system,” Xenophon said.

“Barnaby Joyce made undertakings for water. We need to have a cool look at the science. This is not being fair dinkum. If they are saying there are technical issues and then engineering issues, then deal with it rather than giving up.

“The health of Murray is critical to the environment and agricultural assets of Australia, particularly in South Australia.”

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In 2009, Xenophon refused to support the Rudd government’s $42bn economic stimulus package during the global financial crisis without $1bn extra funding for the Murray Darling for water buybacks and environmental flows.

Xenophon is currently negotiating with the government on its industrial relations bills. While the registered organisations commission bill is expected to pass with amendments including protection of whistleblowers, the ABCC bill is more likely to stall.

But Xenophon is not the only crossbencher with sticking points on the bills. While Xenophon wants protections around “security of payment” for subcontractors, it is understood Victorian senator Derryn Hinch is preparing many pages of amendments to the ABCC bill which could see the bill postponed into the final week of parliament or beyond.

The changes would protect vulnerable contractors who are shortchanged in payment disputes on government construction work.

The Hinch amendments would guard against sham contracting and address the underpayment of workers on government contracts, including 457 workers.

It is believed Hinch is concerned that smaller contractors are being refused payment on construction projects for so-called workmanship issues, causing high rates of insolvency.

National MP Andrew Broad, who holds the electorate of Mallee which includes the river town of Mildura, said the Murray river was running beyond its banks because it was so full.

He said large water releases would not get through the Barmah Choke – a narrow section of the Murray – without flooding the area.

