Key Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce is pushing for more changes to the Government's media law overhaul.
Senator
Joyce (pictured)says he is willing to cross the floor to secure amendments.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan says it would be a tragedy if the Government's package of media law changes did not pass the Senate in its entirety.
"We have a commitment from our colleagues, it went through our party room - it was an extensive discussion - and commitments have been given," she said.
"These changes have undergone a great deal of consultations and I have met the concerns of colleagues."
Nationals senators say they will pass the Bills but Senator Joyce is hoping for amendments to the media ownership shake-up before the final vote.
"I'm prepared to back myself in and if it requires to vote with that amendment in whatever form of the house it is on, I will do that," he said.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says the Nationals should vote with Labor.
"Tossing a few more cans of Pal into the dog's breakfast will not in fact make decent law," he said.
Debate on the Bill is continuing.
In anther development;-
Coonan upbeat on media Bill's prospects
The Communications Minister says she expects the media reform Bill will pass the Senate despite lingering concerns held by some senators.
Helen Coonan has made a number of concessions to Nationals backbenchers to secure support for a package of media law changes.
But Senator Barnaby Joyce has reserved his right to try to force more changes to the Bill, although he will not vote against it.
Senator Coonan says she expects the laws will pass.
"We have a commitment from our colleagues, it went through our party room - it was an extensive discussion - and commitments have been given," she said.
"These changes have undergone a great deal of consultations and I have met the concerns of colleagues."
Senator Coonan says if amendments to the Bill are forced, it would be a tragedy.
"The Government won't be interested in people cherry picking bits of the legislation, bits of the package, so it goes together as a package," she said.
"If people want all of these protections for rural and regional areas, if they want all of the new advantages of the new digital platforms, all of these new channels, all of these multi-channels, it should be passed as a package.
"I'm concerned to ensure that whole package passes because it will move forward as a package, it has substantial benefits for consumers and for the national interest.
"It would be a tragedy, I think, if it didn't actually pass in its entirety but there could be amendments on the way through and I'll deal with those as they arise."
Senator Joyce says the concessions gained by the Nationals are significant but more needs to be done.
"What the National party has achieved is quite substantial," he said.
"There has been a lot of hard work and I think we've got results but we always reserve our right right to the end to get improvements."
Media takeovers
Senator Coonan also says she does not expect the overhaul to spark a wave of takeovers in the industry.
She says stringent safeguards mean the shake-up will not prompt a flood of mergers.
"I certainly don't expect to see that," she said.
"I think that the cross-media arrangements that have been agreed to have very significant safeguards.
"They've got additional structural barriers to takeovers in the two-out-of-three [rules which have been] extended to metropolitan and regional areas."
The Senator says concerns that diversity will be reduced are unfounded, particularly given a range of new services that will come online.
"There's some new services that are to be now arranged over the digital spectrum ... additional sources of diversity," she said.
(Source: ABC News)