Spoiler alert: because the worst people in this unshaved butt-twuntch of a 'debate' are terrified they might lose. This way, even if they do lose, they win, because an 'indicative plebiscite' carries less legal weight than a fridge magnet poem.

Mr Wilson said he apologised to Malcolm Turnbull after the meeting, and the Prime Minister accepted his apology. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There is no guarantee, of course, that a marriage equality vote would get up in Parliament. The numbers seem to fall in favour, but numbers in politics are not like numbers in real life. They are magical things, contingent and fraught. The only person you can really trust is the one who tells straight up they're voting against you.

As damaging, gross and flat out crazy as a full blown debate on marriage equality could get within the confines of Parliament House, it would be infinitely more refined and intelligent than the deranged shit show that will be unleashed in the wider community by the Prime Minister's determination to do nothing that might offend those shell-backed conservatives he fears will come for him with knives at the first opportunity. Turnbull's thinking seems to run that if he never gives them the opportunity, they'll never come.

But they will, Malcolm. You are already deader than Elvis.