The Turnbull government should allow a free vote on marriage equality in this term or moderate Liberal MPs could sponsor a bill themselves to force the issue as a last resort, Trent Zimmerman has said.

The member for North Sydney made the comments on Radio National Drive on Tuesday, joining Liberal senator Dean Smith who has been calling for a free vote in parliament this term since last year.

On Tuesday, as Malcolm Turnbull threw his support behind substantive changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, Zimmerman was asked if it was inconsistent that a pre-election commitment on that issue had changed but the government so far stood by its proposed marriage equality policy plebiscite.

“You could draw that conclusion,” he replied, adding his view that all Coalition MPs had used their “best endeavours” to pass the plebiscite before it was blocked by the Senate.

“My personal and strong view is that it’s time for us to look at a free vote.”

Zimmerman’s comments throw down a challenge to Turnbull, who has never ruled out a free vote but reiterated his support for a plebiscite as recently as Friday.

Although the pathway to a free vote was “not yet clear”, Zimmerman said it would resolve the issue in the most timely fashion.

The problem with “further delay or resolving this through a new round of election commitments” was that many people, including some elderly couples, desperately wanted to join the institution of marriage right away, he said.

Asked about a report from the Daily Telegraph on Monday that conservatives wanted a voluntary postal plebiscite, Zimmerman said it was the wrong path because it would be seen as “tricky and sneaky”, it would be nonbinding and its result could be disregarded and it would result in a three-month campaign.

On Tuesday Fairfax Media reported that the most senior conservatives in cabinet, Peter Dutton and Mathias Cormann, were the ones pushing for the postal vote plebiscite as a means to fulfil the election promise of a plebiscite but resolve the issue before the next election.

Asked about co-sponsoring a bill, Zimmerman said “that option is the last option that we would consider” because they would like all members to have a free vote – meaning reconsideration of a free vote in the party room so that cabinet members are not bound to vote against marriage equality.



“I think that the important thing is that people understand our resolve to see this issue dealt with.”

Zimmerman also said it was arguable a free vote “already exists” because Tony Abbott had said the 44th parliament would be the last in which Coalition MPs would be bound on same-sex marriage.

Asked about the proposed postal plebiscite plan, Barnaby Joyce told Lateline on Monday “of course” he had been consulted about it.



“We spent gosh knows how long last year talking about the marriage debate, we came up with a solution, have a plebiscite, they didn’t like that,” he said.

“I don’t want to spend half of this year talking about it as well.”

The co-chair of Australian Marriage Equality has called the postal proposal a “desperate ploy” that would be a “sneaky and underhanded way” to deal with the social reform.

A spokesman for Dutton reportedly told Fairfax Media that he remained committed to a plebiscite on same-sex marriage.