Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he does not believe there is any need for a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's media in the wake of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

Greens leader Bob Brown, who has dubbed the Murdoch press the "hate media" and accused it of bias against the Greens and Labor, has called for an inquiry. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has characterised some media reporting on the carbon price as "complete crap".

But Mr Abbott said a politician complaining about the media was in the same position as "a footballer complaining about the umpire".

"I think the media do a pretty good job of holding us to account," he told Channel Nine.

"Sometimes the media go over the top, sometimes politicians go over the top, and there are mechanisms already in the system for holding people to account when they get it wrong.

"Rupert [Murdoch] runs a lot of newspapers, some very good newspapers, so do other people."

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says Mr Murdoch's Australian newspapers should not be tarred with the same brush as those in Britain.

"The scandal in the United Kingdom over phone hacking is truly shocking, absolutely deplorable," he told ABC Radio's AM program.

"But that scandal, however, [it] really speaks to a failure of management at the News of the World and perhaps another News Limited [sic] newspapers there and also what appears to be the failure of the police to thoroughly investigate it."

This morning, Senator Brown was not backing away from his demand for an inquiry, saying there is no "fit and proper person" criteria in Australia to scrutinise media ownership.

"There is no independent watchdog of the newspapers in Australia - there is the Press Council, but as Mr Hartigan from the Murdoch media said last night, 'We pay for that'."

Last night News Limited CEO John Hartigan used an appearance on ABC TV's 7.30 to deny Labor allegations that his newspapers were engaged in a "regime change" operation in Australia.

The claim was originally aired by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and was echoed last night by former prime minister Paul Keating on Lateline.

Sorry, this video has expired Keating blasts Abbott's carbon 'tripe' ( Tony Jones )

"I would suggest that's a whispering campaign, and like most whispering campaigns, it has no element of truth," Mr Hartigan said.

"We're a company of values, like most companies, and we have very implicit values, we have things that we think as a company and individually as editors that need to be done," he added.

"One of them is a leadership vacuum by minority government, but there's lots of leadership vacuums around Australia at the moment. We're the only organisation that really takes it up to the Government."

But Mr Keating said the actions of News Limited papers made the company's strategy clear.

"The Daily Telegraph yesterday [said] 'Let's have a national election'," he told Lateline.

"Why do we need a national election? We have a clear operating majority in the House of Representatives. It is a stable majority.

"This is why ministers are saying News Limited is after regime change. How can you read it any other way?"

There has been no evidence that News Limited newspapers have eavesdropped on telephone voicemail in Australia and Mr Hartigan said: "I'm hugely confident that there is no improper or unethical behaviour in our newsrooms".