Govt accused of lying over Senate reforms

The Turnbull government has been accused of lying about its Senate voting reforms amid claims it's preparing for an early election.

A joint parliamentary committee will hold a half-day hearing into the draft laws on Tuesday, before handing down its report later in the week - a process described by crossbench senator Ricky Muir as "pathetic" and tokenistic.

He's concerned major changes to the electoral system are being rushed through parliament for political reasons and branded claims by the government and Greens that the plan had been scrutinised over several years as lies.

"The government and the Greens are lying to the voters of Australia," he told parliament on Monday.

Labor has described the half-day hearing as a sham, insisting the most significant changes to the electoral system in 30 years require more than a few hours of scrutiny.

Labor frontbencher Sam Dastyari said the government was clearly preparing to use its building industry reforms to call an early election.

Government sources had been "bragging" to media that they had everything lined up for a double-dissolution election on July 2.

"This is a fix where the government has decided they want to remove a pesky crossbench," he said.

"If this is a good piece of legislation, if this is the right thing to do by the nation ... surely they'd be open to some scrutiny."

Senior Labor figure Stephen Conroy described the committee process as a farce, "like going back to the 1950s in Stalin's Russia".

He slammed government claims Labor had earlier backed Senate reforms, insisting it had never been put to caucus or adopted by any decision making body of the parliamentary Labor party.

He also attacked the Greens for supporting the plan, likening them to turkeys voting for an early Christmas.

"They have given you the opportunity to march yourselves up to the guillotine and you have leapt into bed with them."

Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson laughed off the attack, saying Labor's concern for minor parties and Senate voting reforms would bring "a tear to a glass eye".

Earlier on Monday, cabinet minister Mathias Cormann denied the government was trying to ram the changes through parliament.

He said debate was scheduled to begin in the Senate on Wednesday and continue into the next parliamentary sitting week beginning on March 15, insisting that had always been the government's intention.

Family First senator Bob Day said parliament needed independents who didn't toe a party line.

"This is third world stuff - wiping out independents is what they do in third world countries."