The Turnbull government's building industry watchdog legislation is closer to passing parliament after the Nick Xenophon Team decided to drop a threat against considering government bills.
Senator Xenophon withdrew his demands over water allocations under the Murray-Darling Basin plan for South Australia after securing what he described as significant improvements to the plan under a deal with the government.
The implementation of the plan will now be elevated to first minister's level at the Council of Australian Governments meeting and will also be scrutinised in a Senate estimates process, both biannually.
"We now have a process for the delivering of the plan in a way that we have not seen before," Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
"The fact that the prime minister has taken charge of the implementation plan is a big deal."
But Labor accused Senator Xenophon of selling out by agreeing to a deal which would fail to add one extra drop to the river.
"He's gone for a deal that gives him an excuse to vote for the government's legislation," South Australian opposition frontbencher Penny Wong said.
"We've got more talk rather than more water."
Senator Xenophon, who had been holding up scrutiny of government bills on concerns about the plan, said he could now consider the bill restoring the Australian Building and Construction Commission on its merits.
The chances of the legislation passing were now "better than 50-50".
It was unlikely to pass in the next 12 hours but would rather be dealt with on Wednesday or Thursday night, he said.
But there were still issues he was working on with the government, including retrospectivity provisions and security of payments for subcontractors.
Senator Wong had a sooner timeline for the bill's passage.
"At this stage it's quite clear now because of this deal Nick Xenophon has engaged in I think the legislation will pass and probably today."
Meanwhile, the construction union is keeping optimistic despite warning the ABCC would attack worker condition.
"The sun will come up, the union will continue to fight to represent its members," CFMEU construction arm national secretary Dave Noonan told ABC radio.
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