TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The Gillard Government's on-going fight with News Limited has flared dramatically after the unveiling of proposed new media laws set to be rushed into the Parliament.

Political correspondent Tom Iggulden has more from Canberra.

TOM IGGULDEN, REPORTER: This is what Daily Telegraph readers were served up this morning: the Communications Minister compared to dictators old and new.

KIM WILLIAMS, CEO, KIM WILLIAMS: They included Ahmadinejad and the chap up in North Korea.

TOM IGGULDEN: The Tele's boss used a similar theme to counter government plans to overall media regulation.

KIM WILLIAMS: Bollocks. This is Soviet-style argument. The proposed government regulator with the impossibly pompous Soviet-style name.

TOM IGGULDEN: At times the News Limited supremo sounded like a revolutionary.

KIM WILLIAMS: I encourage you all to rise up to defend the fundamental right of free speech. How dare Senator Conroy say he believes passionately in freedom of the press as a cornerstone of democracy?

STEPHEN CONROY, COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: I was expecting a slightly hysterical reaction, and they've met my expectations at News Limited. That front page says more about the Daily Telegraph and its editor than it does about anything else.

CAMPBELL REID, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, NEWS LIMITED: We perceive Senator Conroy to have a deep and abiding distaste for our company. We don't have a deep and abiding distaste for him.

TOM IGGULDEN: News Limited reporters put their boss's reaction to Julia Gillard.

REPORTER: Doesn't that mean that you're the first non-war Prime Minister to crack down on... to curtail the freedom of the press?

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: That's absolute nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

TOM IGGULDEN: At the centre of the war of words is the Government's plan to create a new watchdog to oversee current media watchdogs. The proposed media advocate would enforce new standards on bodies like the Press Council which oversees newspapers voluntary code of ethics. But there's no detail on what that new standard would be.

ANNA BURKE, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The Member for Wentworth has the call.

TOM IGGULDEN: As the Opposition was only too happy to point out to the Prime Minister.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, SHADOW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: Can she provide the House with examples of published content in breach of the standards her government wishes to enforce through the public interest media advocate. Is the front page of today's Telegraph such an example?

JULIA GILLARD: The Opposition has decided to seek some political advantage by band wagoning with media interests and media organisation; transparent as that and bordering on the laughable, yes it is - I'm glad the Opposition has the good grace to laugh.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: I'm more than happy to debate freedom of the press with the...

ANNA BURKE: The Member for Wentworth will resume his seat...

JULIA GILLARD: I am not going to be drawn on examples because it's inappropriate for me to do so. Because this is not about my view, this is not able the view of politicians, this is about a system of better self-regulation.

TOM IGGULDEN: Legislation for the new media laws will be revealed tomorrow. The Government's given Parliament just a week to decide whether to pass it.

BOB KATTER, INDEPENDENT MP: It would appear that my vote will be crucial.

TOM IGGULDEN: Independents are suspicion about the Government's haste and a lack of detail on what they're to vote on. So too are the Greens, whose support will also be crucial.

CHRISTINE MILNE, GREENS LEADER: What we're going to see here in the last gasp of a Government is a whole lot of big policies that they've been promising for a long time.

TOM IGGULDEN: The Greens leader speculating the Labor caucus is divided on the new media laws.

CHRISTINE MILNE: Saying that they're going to hold the... they don't want the Parliament to be able to make changes suggests to me that Stephen Conroy has only just got the numbers inside the Labor party and can't risk any changes or he'll lose them.

TOM IGGULDEN: Labor's hardly risking losing support from News Limited that it never had anyway. Picking a fight with the media giant may well serve as a handy distraction from the Government's other problems.