Senator suggests bill could pass Senate by end of next week as conservatives scramble to delay same-sex marriage with alternative bill

The Liberal senator Dean Smith has said he will move his marriage equality bill “as soon as practically possible after a yes vote is known”, in a clear indication conservatives are running out of time to propose an alternative.

Given the postal survey result will be announced on 15 November and Labor has also committed to legislate marriage equality as soon as possible, the comments suggest the bill could be debated and even pass the Senate by the end of next week.

After reports that conservatives were working on their own bill, Liberal MP Ian Goodenough has broken cover to criticise the cross-party bill developed by Smith and to say that “more than a dozen” Coalition parliamentarians support the as-yet unseen alternative.

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The Liberal MP Warren Entsch has blasted Coalition conservatives for “rushing” to cobble together a same-sex marriage bill and accused them of attempting to “kick the can down the road” by delaying marriage equality beyond 2017.

The Liberal party is engaged in public infighting over which bill to use to legislate marriage equality after 15 November, with conservatives including Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz publicly criticising Smith’s bill and the education minister, Simon Birmingham, saying the bill is the “natural starting point” for legislative debate on the issue.

Goodenough said the bill was “focused on the wedding ceremony itself” but did not offer protections of religious freedom in other walks of life.

On ABC’s AM he called for the ability for schools “to teach their children about the traditional view of marriage without having to provide the full spectrum of views”.

He suggested that charities such as the Salvation Army and Anglicare should have their government funding guaranteed but failed to explain how a change in marriage law might force them to “curtail their activities” or risk their charitable status.

Goodenough suggested it could “take several weeks” to debate even a dozen amendments to a marriage bill and said it was “very difficult” to consider all the changes before parliament rises for the year.

The cross-party bill was drafted by Smith, a Liberal, out of recommendations from a Senate committee inquiry. The bill is co-signed by four Liberal supporters of same-sex marriage, including Entsch, and supported by Labor as an acceptable balance of achieving marriage equality while protecting religious freedom.

Smith defended the bill on Thursday, telling ABC News24 its cross-party support meant it “makes sense for my bill to be the starting bill”.

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It allows religious ministers, current celebrants who register their objection and religious organisations to refuse to conduct weddings but stops short of the no campaign’s calls for a broad right to discriminate against same-sex weddings for private service providers.

Smith said it was “not a very necessary or worthy criticism” to complain the bill focused on marriage. “This is not a free speech bill. This is not a parenting bill,” he said.

Smith said he would “love to see” the alternative conservative bill, but suggested any ideas should be put up as amendments to his own.

“If there is a yes vote, I will be moving it in the parliament ... And I will move that bill as soon as practically possible after a yes vote is known.”

He said it was unnecessary for the Coalition party room to consider it because the government had committed to facilitate a private members bill, and same-sex marriage would “most definitely be done” by Christmas if a yes vote is returned.

Earlier, Entsch told the ABC’s AM program that if the yes vote won there would be “very little tolerance” by the Australian people of “a group of individuals that are going to continue to try and manipulate the process or invent further ways of kicking the can down the road”.

Entsch said the views of a “a small group of individuals” who had “stridently opposed” same-sex marriage but were now proposing a bill were “not the broad view of the Coalition”.

Entsch said that Liberal supporters of same-sex marriage intend to introduce their bill which has “a lot of credibility” and accused conservatives of “rushing” to put together an alternative that was “hatched up five minutes before a vote that may well turn out to be yes”.

Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi has used the “constitutional crisis” on citizenship eligibility to argue that marriage legislation must be delayed.

He told Sky News that some consider the 45th parliament “completely illegitimate” because there are as many as 20 MPs and senators who may not eligible, so parliament should not deal with what he called “the most contentious” social issue in years.

Bernardi accused his critics of “[abandoning] all principle in favour of some sort of selfish indulgence” by continuing to push for marriage equality in a parliament with “question marks hovering over many people”.

The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said if the survey result is yes “Australians are not going to tolerate this group of MPs and senators blocking progress again”.

“The no case, if the no case loses the survey, they need to get over it and they need to get out of the way,” she said.

The Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie told Sky News the government “owes it to the Australian community” to get marriage equality through before Christmas if the yes vote wins.