The coalition has yet to settle on how, when - or even if - it will put same-sex marriage to a popular vote.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says voters will have a clear choice at the next election on the position of major parties on the issue.
"You'll have the Labor Party which wants it to go to a parliamentary vote and you've got the coalition that wants it to go to a people's vote," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
A senior Liberal told AAP the idea had been raised in the prime minister's "summing up" of the meeting, but had not been agreed by members.
Mr Abbott's parliamentary secretary Alan Tudge told Sky News the party room meeting had decided to "investigate the possibility" of a national vote.
Mr Abbott declined to say what form the "people's vote" would take - in terms of a referendum or a plebiscite and whether the result would be based on a simple majority or a majority in all states and territories.
"These are matters that we will now be working on and we'll have plenty to say on them prior to the election," he said.
Tuesday's joint party room meeting had settled on a "strong disposition" to put the issue to a national vote, he said.
Mr Abbott said he did not think it would be a good idea to hold the vote at the same time as a referendum to recognise indigenous people in the constitution, which is expected in 2017, or at the time of the federal election in 2016.
"I think that people ought to be able to focus on the differences between a strong and competent government and an opposition which hasn't learned and can't change," he said.
"Nevertheless, these are simply my dispositions - we haven't finalised what we'll do."
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