Barnaby Joyce has warned Queensland Sugar Limited and mill owner Wilmar to end their long-running dispute or deal with the "clumsy fingers" of federal politicians poking around in their businesses.
The deputy prime minister says the best outcome would be if the two companies reached a new supply agreement during mediation talks on Thursday.
"We've always said, and I'll continue to say, that we reserve our rights at the federal level," he told reporters in Canberra.
"[But] if they think for one second that we've taken our eye off the ball, or we're going to let this go through to the keeper, we haven't.
"I say to QSL, I say to Wilmar, if you don't want the clumsy fingers in your business, then fix up your business, fix it up [like] today."
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The Queensland government, with the help of the cross bench, voted down a rushed LNP bill to amend the Sugar Industry Act on Wednesday night which would have forced the two warring companies into arbitration.
Mr Joyce says the decision by independents Billy Gordon, Rob Pyne and speaker Peter Wellington to support the government was "a disgrace".
"The Labor Party has somehow got them in their tentacles, they've wrapped them back up and they've voted against their own sugar farmers in their own state in their own electorates," he said.
The minority Labor government accused the LNP opposition of trying to cynically exploit cane farmers in a bid to keep federal colleague George Christensen from leaving the coalition.
On Tuesday, it announced former Supreme Court judge Richard Chesterman had been appointed to hold mediation talks with QSL and Wilmar.
The companies' inability to reach a new supply agreement, which determines mill access and sugar prices, has meant about 1500 farmers have been unable to crush their cane ahead of the 2017 season.
