Paul McIntyre: Read all about it: Oz media mayhem

Prime Minister John Howard and his Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, are vigorously denying any link between their media ownership changes and the breathtaking response from Australian media companies this week to sell, buy and position for the new laws when they are proclaimed early next year.

James Packer's extraordinarily quick deal earlier in the week to pocket A$4.5 billion for hiving off half his media assets to European private Equity firm CVC Asia Pacific was just the start.

The Seven Network, controlled by another Australian billionaire, Kerry Stokes, followed suit with a A$343 million buying spree of Western Australian Newspapers stock and then, late on Thursday, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp did the unthinkable by spending A$364 million for a crucial 7.5 per cent stake in rival newspaper group John Fairfax.

Things have travelled at a blistering pace for the A$12 billion Australian media sector this week and much, much more is to come.

The three key deals this week have seen a truckload of pressure piled on Howard and Coonan about their new rules, which have triggered a scenario which the critics always predicted: Media consolidation is well under way and diversity of opinion and ideas is dead.

A break-up of Fairfax - unlike most other listed media groups, it has no media mogul sitting on a large stake - is fast becoming the most talked about event in the lead-up to the new laws being proclaimed. A handful of institutional investors see far greater returns for their investment in a break-up of the media company than to keep it together and News' raid on Thursday will ensure it plays a central role in any carve-up.

"This is a move that is not about increased diversity, it's a move designed to give News Ltd a strategic stake in Fairfax so it can determine where the final assets of the Fairfax empire end up," said Labor communications spokesman Stephen Conroy. "It places News in an incredibly influential position to determine future concentration."

Howard and Coonan's responses this week to the media mayhem were ludicrous.

Ponder this from the Prime Minister on ABC Radio: "I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about the frenzy. It's a misunderstanding of the situation to say that they are a direct consequence of the current laws.

"They may be anticipatory moves but I think we have to keep a sense of balance."

That really depends on which planet the Prime Minister is on. Coonan was a fellow space cadet this week. When questioned last week if the Government expected to see a "wave of takeovers" after her new laws, she said: "I don't expect to see that."

One week can produce a lot of egg and Coonan is covered in the stuff. "I didn't say there wouldn't be any activity that could take place under the present law and that's in fact what's happened," she wriggled rhetorically on Thursday. "It certainly is not a result of the laws that have not been proclaimed."

If that's not enough denial from the good Senator, try this: "There hasn't been any mergers take place at all yet," she said. "We have to wait until the new laws come into effect and then see what kind of proposals are made because they have to comply with stringent safeguards."

Yes, of course, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for Coonan and Howard to explain how these new rules have done anything but line the pockets of their big media friends.

Coonan was on ABC's Lateline show on Thursday taking offence to such questioning but some intriguing analysis released yesterday by online publisher crikey.com.au shows just how big the windfall for media owners has been since the new rules got through the Senate last week.

The figure, and wait for it, is a A$4 billion bonanza. The analysis is based on the market capitalisation of 11 major media companies between September 18 and October 18 - the September date is regarded as the time at which the market started to factor in the changes to media rules as they did essentially emerge.

Companies such as the Packer-controlled PBL is up A$1.4 billion, John Fairfax is up A$1.1 billion, WA Newspapers up A$300 million, Rural Press up A$210 million, APN News & Media up A$160 million and so on.

The Australian media business is back to the frantic ownership jockeying of the 1980s while the politicians who started it all are stuck at a famous concert two decades earlier called Woodstock.