South Australia calls for Murray Darling judicial inquiry

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and federal South Australian senators are demanding a judicial review into water use in the Murray Darling basin.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill, centre, is joined by a number of senators who want for a judicial review into water use in the Murray Darling basin. Source: AAP

A who's-who of South Australian state and federal politicians are calling for an independent judicial inquiry into water use in the Murray Darling Basin.

The state government and a group of federal senators including Penny Wong, Nick Xenophon, Cory Bernardi and Sarah Hanson Young have called on the prime minister to commission the inquiry .

Mr Weatherill said that the allegations of water misuse by NSW cotton farmers were so serious they demanded a judicial review.

"The reason we need a judicial review is to understand the truth or otherwise of those allegations because if they are true they go to the heart of the integrity of the implementation of the Murray Darling Basin agreement," Mr Weatherill said.

"That's why we're standing here together the Labor party, the Conservatives, the Greens, Nick Xenophon party."

Mr Bernardi said that the river was so important to the state's prosperity and productivity it was worth standing together to ensure that the basin agreement was being upheld in its entirety.

"If we are going to have any confidence South Australia is getting a fair deal and a fair go we need to make sure that the entire agreement is being upheld," Mr Bernardi said.

"It is too big an issue for it to be investigated by those with their own interests at heart we need an independent judicial review."

The demand comes as the Turnbull government announced an independent review by the Murray Darling Basin Authority into water usage following allegations aired by the ABC-TV's Four Corners that billions of litres of water earmarked for the environment had been diverted for cotton irrigation in NSW.