Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will introduce legislation to amend the Murray Darling Basin plan on Wednesday after unveiling changes following revelations it would fail to hit its 2024 water recovery targets.
Opposition water spokeswoman Perin Davey wants the legislation sent to an inquiry and a committee to visit affected communities.
The Greens are supporting the move for an inquiry, saying they cannot sign up to the plan in its current form.
Senator Davey is also set to push the government to release the modelling underpinning the new plan after the minister said she would remain coy on the amount allocated to water buybacks, insisting revealing the details publicly could distort the market.
The Nationals senator said the secrecy surrounding the legislation and its potential impacts showed "a disappointing level of disrespect and contempt for regional communities".
"The Nationals will be fighting for the Senate to put this legislation to an inquiry so that these communities can hear first-hand the good, the bad and the ugly of what is being proposed," Senator Davey said.Â
The Greens are also pushing for more stringent oversight mechanisms to ensure all 450 gigalitres earmarked for the environment are recovered.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the party wanted to be sure the water would be recovered this time and not "just kick the can down the road".
"In order to get Greens' support for delaying the plan, we need a guarantee that water - real water - is delivered for South Australia, the environment and the health of the river," she said.
Asked how many water buybacks would be involved, Ms Plibersek said the government needed to finalise issues before it could settle on an amount.
"We need to give proper time and opportunity for the water efficiency projects that are currently being built by the states ... to finally realise how many litres of water those projects are going to achieve," she told ABC News on Wednesday.
"We've got a little way to go before we could say a specific amount of water will be bought."
The timeline to recover the water has been extended from June 2024 to the end of 2027 and the water infrastructure project timeline pushed out to the end of 2026.
The governments of NSW, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT all signed up to the new plan, with Victoria the only basin state to oppose it due to the government's opposition to buybacks.
The NSW government says its opposition to buybacks remains and it wants to see other ways of recovering water prioritised.
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