Senator Bernardi, who has previously said gay marriage could lead to acceptance of bestiality, warned marriage equality could lead to legalised commercial surrogacy for gay couples. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declined to echo calls for supporters of same-sex marriage in his party to stand down from cabinet. Credit:James Brickwood Senator Abetz said gay marriage would open a "Pandora's box" of consequences including polyamory and also questioned whether Australia should be following Asia's lead, and not the West, given Australia's place in the so-called "Asian Century". Senator Abetz, who is Employment Minister and the leader of the government in the Senate, demanded frontbenchers who have publicly declared their support for gay marriage, including Malcolm Turnbull, Simon Birmingham, Josh Frydenberg and Kelly O'Dwyer, quit the ministry if they want to vote for any bill. "If you're a frontbencher you do need to support the existing policy and if you don't, you then resign your frontbench position," Senator Abetz told Sky.

But one frontbencher has told Fairfax Media there would be no need for ministers to make such a choice because the party room would "absolutely" be given a free vote. Senator Eric Abetz, with former PM John Howard and PM Tony Abbott, opposes same-sex marriage. "We are the party of Menzies and it's ridiculous to think the party of Menzies would not allow a free vote on an issue such as this, irrespective of your views," the frontbencher said. Liberal MPs are free to vote according to their conscience at any time, unlike the Labor party, which expels backbenchers who stray from the party line. However ministers are bound by cabinet solidarity, which is why supporters of gay marriage are calling for the Prime Minister to grant a free vote as it would free the frontbench from their duty to vote according to party lines.

The Coalition's response to the issue indicates deep confusion within the party regarding its current policy. Supporters say the Prime Minister made it clear before the 2013 election that the party's policy would be up for debate in the party room if the issue resurfaced. But conservative Liberals believe the party policy remains the same as in 2010, which is to stick by the current definition of the Marriage Act. This is fuelling their demands that frontbenchers quit if they want to vote in support of change. When asked if he would also be urging frontbenchers to resign if they wanted to vote in favour, Mr Abbott declined to re-state Senator Abetz's demands. "There are certainly strong and different views in the community on this and that certainly extends to our Parliament," Mr Abbott told "We have a very representative Parliament, we have quite representative political parties," he said, before promising to stay focused on the economy and national security. Mr Abbott also continued to pour cold water on the likelihood of any changes to the Marriage Act, saying it was "quite unusual" for private member's bills to be debated and voted upon.

"I've been in the Parliament now for 21 years and there's only been from memory two or three occasions when a private member's bill has come on for debate and vote," he said. Under former prime minister John Howard, several private members bills, including a cross-party push by women MPs to legalise the abortion drug RU486, as well as stem cell research legislation, successfully passed the Parliament. Mr Abbott said any gay marriage bill would be dealt with an "absolutely normal and straight-forward way". The cross-party bill will also be sponsored by two Labor MPs, the Member for Griffith Terri Butler and the Member for Werriwa Laurie Ferguson. Mr Ferguson hit out at deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek saying her recent call for a "Yes" vote to be made binding on her Labor colleagues was "total idiocy".

"I think that this proposal was total idiocy, to try and have a forced vote on this issue," Mr Ferguson told the ABC. Ms Plibersek has not since restated her demand, ahead of the Labor party's conference scheduled for the end of July. Loading Follow us on Twitter Follow Latika Bourke on Facebook