Evan Wolfson, who founded the US organisation Freedom To Marry, is viewed by many as the architect of the US same-sex marriage campaign. He told BuzzFeed News that Australian politicians had, so far, let the people down on the issue.

"The Australian public have been ahead of the politicians now for some time," he said. "And [the politicians] have, in various stages, tied knots that have made it hard to advance, even when there were moments of opportunity.

"The eyes of the world right now are very much on Australia. We're very hopeful that Australia will continue the momentum among the pluralist democracies and keep raising high the standard of human rights, so others can take heart and move forward."

