Senator David Leyonhjelm pushes for same-sex marriage bill debate, says it is unlikely there is enough support to pass bill in 'this Parliament'

Updated

Crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm will ramp up the pressure on the Government over same-sex marriage, by pushing for debate on his bill next week.

The Liberal Democrat has already introduced the draft legislation to legalise gay marriage and will move to start debate in the Upper House this sitting fortnight.

Labor MPs have previously been able to cast a conscience vote on the issue.

But in the last parliament, the Coalition's position was to oppose changing the Marriage Act.

The Prime Minister, who promised to take the question of a free vote to his party room after the 2013 election, says he remains opposed to the bill.

A number of Liberal MPs including Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull have publicly backed same-sex marriage.

Senator Leyonhjelm said bringing on the debate next week would push the Government to have the party room discussion about a free vote.

He said that could happen on Tuesday, when Government MPs meet again.

"Once a bill is listed for debate they have to have a position on it," he told reporters in Canberra.

"There is a possibility that they might decide not to change their position but the betting is that that won't be the case."

He maintains there is a lot of support in the Liberal Party for a free vote and he says he is "reasonably confident" that the majority will favour it.

Senator Leyonhjelm said he had discussions with Government ministers about whether there would be enough support in the Parliament to pass the law.

"I'm not the expert on this but I don't think the numbers are there if it came to a vote, at the moment, that it would pass," he said.

"It would be close in the Senate but I think in the House it would probably lose."

He said it was not his intention to bring the matter to a vote at this stage but he wanted to "kick the debate along".

"It's hard to say what the outcome would be once there is the freedom to say what you like and there isn't a party position to hide behind," Senator Leyonhjelm said.

He said it was his feeling the bill would not get enough support in "this Parliament".

Topics: lgbt, community-and-society, marriage, family-and-children, australia

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