Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has vowed to fight for more money to be included in his long-awaited agriculture white paper after critics accused him of proposing “crackpot” and “expensive” ideas.

Mr Joyce’s comments follow revelations the Abbott Government’s delayed agriculture document has become the latest target of Cabinet’s powerful razor gang.

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“I’m making sure we bargain for more money into it, I want to make sure this is a substantial document,” Mr Joyce told the ABC’s Insiders program.

The Government said it wanted to release the white paper as soon as possible, but insisted it would take the time to get it right.

Originally expected to be released before Christmas, the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper is now only “set for completion in 2015”.

It is understood the white paper, which Mr Joyce has been working on, is now sitting with the Prime Minister’s office.

The ABC has been told it was being heavily scrutinised by senior ministers and significantly by Cabinet’s budget razor gang – known officially as the Expenditure Review Committee.

A senior Government figure familiar with the contents of the document said it contained “every crackpot idea” from the past 25 years.

Another well-placed Coalition source said it was “chock full of intriguing and expensive ideas”.

“It’s a shame when people say that,” Mr Joyce said.

“The submissions we got, about 1,000 submissions for the white paper, so when someone says it’s a crackpot idea, they’re calling the Australian people crackpots. I don’t think that’s a way to get yourself votes.”

Labor’s spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said agriculture was “spinning out of control under Barnaby Joyce”.

“We’ve now been 18 months without an agriculture policy,” he said.

But the Agriculture Minister insisted his white paper would be a carefully considered document.

“I think that when the Australian people submit their ideas, you treat them with respect and go into bat for them,” Mr Joyce said.

“I’ll make sure we treat with respect the efforts and submissions that have been put to us and I’ll continue to fight for as much as we can get.”