A Coalition senator who called for the ABC to be sold because of perceived left-wing bias has been ridiculed by Labor as a "fruit loop".

Queensland Liberal National senator James McGrath used his maiden speech in Parliament to call for the GST to be increased and applied to "everything", and for an overhaul of the public broadcaster.

The former senior Liberal adviser asked for a review of the ABC's charter and said if the broadcaster did not address concerns about bias it should be sold and replaced by a "regional and rural broadcasting service".

"While it continues to represent only inner-city leftist views, and funded by our taxes, it is in danger of losing its social licence to operate," he said.

He also called for the federal health and education departments to be axed, and for the GST to be increased to 15 per cent and applied across the board to pay for the abolition of the payroll and company taxes.

Labor senator Doug Cameron has attacked Senator McGrath as a "Tea Party extremist".

"I'm still gobsmacked by that speech," Senator Cameron told reporters on his way into Parliament this morning.

"It's clear that the extremists are the ones that are coming into Parliament from the Coalition – this Tea Party approach dominates the Coalition ... from Tony Abbott down.

"What is it with these people, what is it with them?

"These are the people that are supposed to be the high-calibre Liberals. If this is the high-calibre Liberals I'd hate to go to a Liberal party branch in Queensland and see the low-lifes in operation.

"These people are fruit loops."

Canavan praises McGrath, but does not support ABC sale

Senator McGrath's maiden speech delivered on Wednesday afternoon was followed by that of his Coalition colleague Nationals senator Matt Canavan.

Speaking this morning, Senator Canavan heaped praise on Senator McGrath's speech but said he did not support any sale of the ABC.

"There are two things you wake up next to in regional Australia - there's your wife and the ABC - and I want to stay close to both of them," he said.

Senator Canavan said he would like to see the ABC make some changes because he believed some of its programs were biased.

Crossbench senator Bob Day defended the ABC and said people needed to be cautious about the claims of bias levelled against the broadcaster.

"What does bias mean? We don't see the world the way the world is," he said.

"Everybody sees the world through their own prism."

Senator Day said while he had no issue with the ABC's editorial direction, he did have concerns that the Government-funded broadcaster was crowding out private news media companies.