The Federal Government wants to introduce legislation to cap water buybacks in the Murray-Darling, but only if Labor is on board.

One plank of the Coalition’s 2013 federal election bid was a plan to restrict Basin Plan buybacks, by law, to 1,500 gigalitres.

Labor says the cap already exists, implicit in the Basin Plan.

But Parliamentary Environment Secretary, Bob Baldwin, says the Government will not announce a timetable for its legislation until Labor backs it.

“We have commenced drafting [legislation],” Mr Baldwin told the ABC.

“As soon as we have the Labor Party's bipartisan support, irrevocable support, we will put the legislation through the House and the Senate.”

“It's rather silly to consume the time of the parliament when there's so much work going on, if a piece of legislation is not going to get through,” he said.

Water buybacks have been the main way to recover water for the Murray-Darling environment under the Basin Plan.

The Basin Plan calls for 2,750 gigalitres of environmental water to be returned to the rivers.

But it includes a stipulation that says if the same environmental outcome would be achieved without harming Basin communities or productivity, then the amount to be returned can be reduced.

The Victorian Farmers' Federation, National Irrigators Council and National Farmers' Federation welcomed plan to legislate the buyback cap.

The Australian Conservation Foundation is opposed.

Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, welcomed the announcement.

“As a Shadow Minister for Water previously and now Minister for Agriculture, I know just how vital water is to Australian farmers,” he said.

“Water is wealth, stored water is a bank and no water is a drought,” Minister Joyce said.