Momentum for a cross-party same sex marriage bill is growing, with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young confirming she has also had discussions with Liberal MP Warren Entsch and Labor MP Graham Perrett about backing a "tri-partisan bill" that would end the political impasse over the issue.
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And two more Labor MPs, Stephen Jones and Amanda Rishworth, have conceded that a compromise cross-party bill - rather than the bill proposed by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten - may offer the best chance to pass the social reform.
Fairfax Media revealed on Thursday that Mr Entsch and Mr Perrett had discussed and were prepared to work on a compromise bill if Mr Shorten's push stalls in the Parliament.
Since then, Mr Perrett has appeared to cool on the idea, telling ABC News Radio the proposal was "idle chatter" and tweeting "there is no other legislation other than the @billshortenmp piece. I'm happy to work with Warren & Theresa [Gambaro, another Liberal supporter of same-sex marriage] on supporting it."
But Senator Hanson-Young told Fairfax Media on Friday that she believed a co-operative approach was required to pass the reform and confirmed she was involved in discussions too about the three political parties jointly sponsoring a bill.
"Both Warren and Graham are wonderful advocates and of course the Greens have been at the forefront but we were never going to be able to do it on our own," she said.
"I obviously can't sponsor a lower house bill from the Senate, but in terms of it being a Labor-Greens-Liberal bill, I have spoken directly to them both about it.
"Tony Abbott needs political cover on this issue and the way for him to achieve that is for a tri-partisan bill. I think that the Labor leadership need to accept that too if they are genuine about achieving reform."
It's likely the Greens' sole lower house MP, Adam Bandt, would serve as the Greens sponsor if the idea is progressed.
Mr Jones, who was the first Labor MP to introduce such a bill back in 2012, told Fairfax Media on Friday that "Bill is the first leader of a major party to introduce this into the Parliament and am looking forward to that happening on Monday".
"Where we go from there is a matter for discussion, I know the overwhelming majority of Labor people want to see this happen and that will be our focus," he said.
"They [the Coalition] want to talk about the budget, we want to see this happen, eventually a compromise will have to happen."
Ms Rishworth criticised Coalition MPs for being unwilling to advance the issue until the matter was brought to a head by Labor, despite an invitation from deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek for a Liberal co-sponsor a year ago.
"None of them have been willing to sponsor Tanya Plibersek's bill, I wouldobviously like to see a bill of some sort come to the Parliament," she told Fairfax's Breaking Politics.
"I hope the Liberal Party will indeed a) be given a conscience vote because I think that is a very important step and b) that we will see a bill, whether it is Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek, whether it is another bill, pass the Parliament."
A cross-party bill - unlike Mr Shorten's - would have a greater chance of serving as a political circuit breaker, after the Prime Minister set the conditions for a conscience vote in the Liberal Party this week. Mr Abbott said that "if our Parliament were to make a big decision on a matter such as this, I want it to be owned by the Parliament, and not by any particular party".
with Callum Denness
