A smooth passage through federal parliament for the legalisation of same sex marriage is already looking unlikely, despite an indication that Prime Minister Tony Abbott is prepared to allow a conscience vote on the issue.
Reports that a federal Liberal and Labor backbencher were proposing cross-party private members bill as a circuit breaker to achieve marriage equality have now been denied.
And it appears that there will be no discussion within the Coalition about a free vote until August at the earliest.
The hopes of supporters of legalised gay marriage were raised earlier this week, with Mr Abbott telling parliament there needed to be ownership of gay marriage by the whole of parliament for a change to the laws to be successful.
"I do just make this one point, though, Madam Speaker - if our Parliament were to make a big decision on a matter such as this, it ought to be owned by the Parliament and not by any particular party, so I would ask the Leader of the Opposition and all members of Parliament to consider this as we ponder these subjects in the weeks and months to come."
Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster, who is engaged to a woman, says she's confident same-sex marriage will be legal in Australia by the end of 2015.
Ms Forster has told the ABC, she believes her brother has given the clearest indication yet that a conscience vote will be allowed in his party room.
"That will be, for me, one of the proudest moment of my life to think that this reform comes under the PM - the prime ministership of Tony Abbott and I think it 's highly appropriate that it would come under the prime ministership of Tony Abbott because he is a wonderfully generously spirited man, he is a very good and fair and decent human being and he, at the end of the day, I'm sure, will understand that this is something that is good and fair for everybody. And that it will be great for Australia."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says he is going ahead with his bill and he hopes it can be bi-partisan.
"Nothing was happening on marriage equality in Australia until I proposed this bill this week. Now I think a lot of people are saying the time is right. Let me be very clear. We will work with the Liberal Party on this matter. On the leader of - I'm the leader of the Labor Party, the party I lead has a free vote but most Labor MPs support marriage equality. It is now time for leadership, it's now time for bipartisan but most of all it's time for marriage equality. "
Same sex marriage proponents were also buoyed by reports that Liberal Warren Entsch and Labor's Graham Perrett had teamed up on the issue.
However, Mr Perrett has denied he's co-sponsoring a private bill with Mr Entsch.
Mr Perrett says Mr Shorten's marriage equality bill is the only one going to the parliament, where it will be introduced on Monday.
But Mr Entsch hasn't given up hope of a cross-party bill.
He says he has spoken to a number of Labor MPs, Greens and independents about a cross-party bill, and will also have discussions with his own colleagues.
Mr Entsch says the prime minister has asked him to come back with a proposal.
"From my perspective, I believe that this should be something that is done right across the parties, and I have spoken the members across the parties, and independents. All have agreed that they are more than happy to put their name, their signature to this. So it's just a matter of finalising it, and the Prime Minister himself has asked me to come back with a proposal."
Parliament rises for the long winter break at the end of next week.
Unless a decision is made about a free vote when the Liberal party room meets on Tuesday, there will be no opportunity to discuss it until the second week of August.
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