Bill Shorten says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be personally responsible for "every hurtful bit of filth" unleashed by public debate on the same-sex marriage postal survey, while confirming Labor will pull out all the stops and campaign for a "yes" vote.

In a passionate speech after question time - which drew a standing ovation from his Labor colleagues - the Opposition Leader put to bed suggestions the federal ALP could boycott the vote and urged Australians who support same-sex marriage to vote in the non-compulsory survey.

The decision to throw support behind a "yes" vote had not been taken lightly by the ALP and will likely be followed by the Greens, unions, business and at least some same-sex marriage advocates, such as Australians 4 Equality.

The ALP held a series of meetings with same-sex marriage advocates on Wednesday to discuss tactics and strategy about the campaign. It has also been discussed at a series of working groups that included the ALP leadership group and other MPs on the front line of the campaign for marriage equality, such as legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus and shadow assistant minister for equality Terri Butler.