Malcolm Turnbull's chance of bringing forward the budget by a week and calling a July election could be thwarted by the Senate.
Both houses of parliament are scheduled to sit from Tuesday for three days for the last time before the scheduled May 10 budget.
But the prime minister is weighing up the prospect of bringing forward the budget to May 3 to get the first raft of budget bills passed.
This would also give the government another window to present to the Senate laws to reinstate the building industry watchdog which - if opposed by the senate crossbenchers as expected - could hand the coalition the trigger for the double-dissolution election in July.
However, crossbench senator Ricky Muir plans to move a motion to try to push the government into dealing with the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill this week instead.
"I'm handing the ABCC bills to them on a silver platter," he told ABC radio on Monday.
The goal is to try to force the coalition to decide between going ahead with its plans to check off changes to the way Australians vote for the Senate, which are expected to pass thanks to a deal done with the Greens, and the ABCC legislation, which the Greens don't support.
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop said Senator Muir's motion would be considered within the party.
"But we wouldn't even be having this discussion if the cross bench senators didn't vote with Labor to prevent a crackdown on corrupt unions and corrupt union officials," she told reporters on Monday while visiting Fiji.
Meanwhile, there are no guarantees non-government senators will pass the resolution required to allow an earlier budget sitting.
Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm told AAP he would oppose such a move.
"I'd vote against an early budget sitting," he said.
Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong gave no assurance Labor would play ball, taking the government on its word that the budget would be delivered as scheduled.
The government had yet to formally propose a Senate sitting week starting on May 3, after the prime minister last week said it was committed to the delivery of the budget in May.
Treasurer Scott Morrison on Monday said he was working towards May 10.
Six months after toppling Tony Abbott, Mr Turnbull is heading back to Canberra with his personal standing amongst voter a little lower, according to Monday's Fairfax-Ipsos poll.
But the coalition remains ahead on a two-party preferred basis at 53 per cent to Labor's 47 per cent.
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