The Australian Greens’ push to stop billions of litres of water from being stripped from the environment to feather the nests of greedy corporate irrigators has won the backing of Labor and some crossbench senators, passing the Senate tonight.

“We’ve cleared the first hurdle on the road to restoring the Murray Darling Basin Plan back to what it was meant to be; security for the river, and for the environment to get what it needs to survive,” Greens Murray Darling Basin spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Australian Greens Murray-Darling Basin spokesperson and Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young is urging her SA colleagues to hold firm on defending the River Murray amid news that the Labor Party is in talks with the Government over changes to the Murray Darling Basin Plan that would reduce the amount of environmental water.

Today’s revelations that South Australia has been sold down the river about how much water it would lose if the Government’s change to the Murray Darling Basin Plan are further proof why the Plan should not be scaled back, The Australian Greens say.

“Big irrigators and upstream states are always claiming that South Australia is too far downstream for anything to matter – that’s just not true,” Greens Murray Darling Basin spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Australian Greens are renewing calls for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to keep the keys to the Water Ministry out of the hands of Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals.

“Just because Barnaby Joyce has settled his citizenship blunder and has been returned to Parliament, does not mean we can forget the stuff up after stuff up at the helm of the Water Ministry,” Greens Murray Darling Basin spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.