But Family First senator Bob Day warned the government against proceeding with electoral reform, saying it would be "very unwise" to try to wipe out the micro-party figures they have to deal with to get their legislation through the Senate.

The alarm, sounded by Labor's shadow special minister for state Gary Gray, follows calls from a group of chief executives for Senate reform because of the growth of micro-party senators winning influential balance of power seats as a result of backroom preference deals.

A survey of business leaders from Australia's biggest companies conducted by the Australian Financial Review found some also called for longer terms for the House of Representatives (currently three years) and even voluntary voting to reduce what they said was the political impasses in Canberra that contribute to economic uncertainty.

Wesfarmers' Richard Goyder said "I would reform Senate election rules so that preference gaming does not allow the election to high office of people who in their own right attract very few votes, and move to a four-year federal term."

Victorian Motoring Enthusiast party senator Ricky Muir, who is yet to give his maiden speech, won his six-year term despite winning just half of 1 per cent of the primary vote in 2013.  Senator Day was elected with just 3.76 per cent of the primary vote.

But an angry Senator Day hit back at the business leaders and said if they had their way it would "permanently entrench the Greens" as the "balance of power party". "If Labor and Liberal fall for that they've got rocks in their head," he said.

He urged everyone to "lay off" the media-shy Senator Muir and said the Victorian newcomer would do "far, far less damage to the budget than Wayne Swan, Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard had".  He also said the crossbenchers had passed government legislation Labor had opposed, including the carbon tax and mining tax repeals.

Senator Day also expressed disbelief that business leaders would be advocating for majority parliaments.

"What these CEOs are arguing is that governments should have an absolute majority and the reason we're in this mess is because Labor and the Greens had a majority and just trashed [the budget]," he said.

And he said the Coalition should be wary about going ahead with any moves that would make it impossible for independents to be elected on the back of preferences.

"They want to be very careful about ganging up on little players, that's my first word of caution," he said.

Minor party Palmer United leader and businessman Clive Palmer also dismissed the chief executives' views and told Fairfax Media "these are just Liberal Party hacks trying to rig the results of democracy".

Parliament's joint standing committee on electoral matters made the unanimous recommendation in May  to move to optional preferential voting for senators at the next federal election, meaning voters determine where their preferences are directed and not the parties.

Mr Gray said electoral change "is a genuine economic issue" because without it Australia's political system would grind to a halt, as seen in the US.

"You will see more and more gaming of the electoral system in the Senate and the system will get more and more unworkable until eventually we get the kind of legislative gridlock that characterises the US," he said.

The committee's recommendation is supported by Labor, the Liberals, Nationals and the Greens, meaning it would sail through Parliament as soon as it was introduced.

"I scratch my head and think I don't know why they didn't do this 10 months ago," Mr Gray told Fairfax Media.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon agreed with Mr Gray's warning and said a "breakthrough" was needed to end the "preference whispering" that he believes dudded him of a running mate being elected due to a "bizarre" deal between the Greens and Family First that saw Senator Day elected.  Senator Day says he was legitimately elected on the back of second and third preferences.

Senator Xenophon said that with the government's legislative agenda hostage to the assortment of crossbenchers elected under such deals, reform had been shelved to keep them happy.

"I think the government didn't want to alienate the crossbenchers but I think there is a way through this," he said and urged the Coalition to open new negotiations.

Liberal MP and committee chairman Tony Smith said it was important to proceed with the reforms recommended but cautioned "it's not critical this month or next month".

"It will be a change that will, if implemented, restore the will of the voter by giving them full power of where their preferences go and there'll need to be time for adequate explanation," he said.

"But it's not a particularly complicated change," he added.

A spokesman for the Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson said the government "is currently considering its response" and noted that the committee is still to report on three more issues, including the electoral roll and voter identification.

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