On Sunday, Tony Abbott said the budget was the current priority for the government, and they would discuss marriage equality later.

"I've made it very clear that while this is an important issue the government has an absolute focus right now on getting the budget measures through parliament," he said.

However, it appears increasingly likely that a cross-party marriage equality bill will be submitted to the parliament later in the year.

Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who has been lobbying for reform within the party, told Fairfax Media he would "pop around and have a yarn with Bill" once the budget sittings were over on June 25.

"I'm confident we will get something up in spring," Entsch said.