Katter confident his media plan has legs - Sydney Morning Herald

AAP

Independent MP Bob Katter says the federal government's proposed media reforms are as good as done for, as parliament enters its final sitting day before the May budget.

Two of the government's six media bills have already cleared both houses of parliament, as talks continue between Labor and the independents over the remaining four.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy had vowed to have the reforms package passed by Thursday, but concerns over the government's proposed public interest media advocate have snagged proceedings.

The independents Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Craig Thomson have firmly ruled out supporting the proposed advocate responsible for overseeing the nation's two press councils.

"What we want is a people's watchdog. We don't want a watchdog for the government," Mr Katter told ABC radio on Thursday.

But while Mr Wilkie, Mr Oakeshott and Mr Thomson are also still against passing the government's remaining four bills, Mr Katter put forward an alternative plan for a three-member independent commission to oversee media mergers.

Mr Katter said there was "every likelihood" his proposal would find support, but the rest of the legislation would fall over "as rightly it should".

Senator Conroy said discussions would still continue with the independents, and he would not pre empt their decisions on the remaining bills.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull accused the government of reneging on its pledge not to barter with the independents and outsourcing its policy duties to Mr Katter.

Alluding to leadership speculation circulating around the prime minister, Mr Turnbull questioned whether Labor was acting as a government or a "Julia Gillard preservation society".

"This is an embarrassment and a humiliation," he said.

Independent MP Tony Windsor does not think the government's bills are dead just yet, even though he's not as confident as he was on Wednesday.

"I still there's a 60 per cent chance, slightly less than I thought yesterday," he told ABC Radio.

Mr Windsor said he supported Mr Katter's plan for a three-member independent commission to oversee media mergers even though he said the details were "a bit of a moving target".

"People are being asked to make very important decisions in a hurry with a mixed bag of options ... and then get agreement of five people."

Mr Windsor said it was "probably most likely" the government would not get support for its bill to establish a public interest media advocate to oversee press councils.

"But nothing's dead, until it's dead," he said.

Mr Turnbull says Mr Katter's plan reminded him somewhat of the Venetian constitution.

"Where you have a panel appointing a panel, appointing someone else," he told reporters in Canberra.

"This is really nuts, this is too important to be left to this sort of late-night sort of thought bubble process."

The government had made "a hash" of passing new media laws, he said.

"If they're serious about this they should bring them back in the June sittings after there's been some consultation," Mr Turnbull said.

Labor backbencher Nick Champion admitted the government would only have "some changes" to media laws when parliament rose later on Thursday.

"There's always going to be big policy debates in this country and the day we stop having them is a bad day for Australia," he told Sky News.

Liberal backbencher Kelly O'Dwyer said the government wanted its bills to go through parliament without proper scrutiny, predicting Labor would gag debate.

"They ultimately will be guillotined," she said, describing it as "the great irony".

"The government may well guillotine debates on free speech."

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says the process was getting absurd and warned of the danger in adopting the "convoluted" Katter plan.

"It may the great wonder plan of our time, but I doubt it," he told Sky News.

"I would much prefer if the government really believed in its bills, is (for it) to buy some time."

That meant putting them on the table until parliament returned in May and stand the scrutiny of stakeholders, he said.

"My message to government is stop already."

Mr Oakeshott said he would oppose the four remaining bills if the government insisted on taking them to a vote on Thursday, warning of "a mad rush in the next three to four hours".

"The government should recognise that a deadline at the end of the day is an artificial one."

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the coalition regarded the outcome of the media reforms as a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

"If the government loses that vote, we expect them to call an election," he told reporters.

If the government was stable and less like a "bold and the beautiful" soap opera then the coalition would be able to get on with its job of developing policy and holding Labor to account.

Labor backbencher Rob Mitchell denied it would be embarrassing for the government if the bills did not pass, saying in a hung parliament it had managed to clear more than 400 pieces of legislation.

"There's bound to be one in a hung parliament that's probably not going to get there. That's just life; you just move onto the next one," he said.