Labor frontbencher Ed Husic has become the latest Labor MP to switch position and back same-sex marriage, in a sign of the growing momentum for the potentially landmark social reform.
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Mr Husic's decision comes two days after Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen announced he would now vote for same-sex marriage in a conscience vote.
Both men hold key seats in Western Sydney and both voted against same-sex marriage in 2012, when the issue was last debated.
Mr Husic, who is the nation's first Muslim MP, said he never personally opposed same-sex marriage but had opposed the reform on the basis of community sentiment in his seat of Chifley.
"I'd always maintained a position that I didn't detect a mood to change the Marriage Act in our area. It's why I didn't vote in favour for it previously. However for people wanting to see that change – and disappointed in my position - they would catch up with me and say that change meant a great deal to them," he told Fairfax Media.
"As their representative, constituents would ask: 'Why can't you support us in the things we want to do in our lives?' These situations made me think deeply about the issue and if there was no logical reason to prevent this change, why stand in the way of it?"
"Ultimately, government should be about empowering people to pursue the things important to them in their lives. That's why I will support marriage equality in any future vote on this matter."
With the federal Labor conference due to be held in July, deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek dropped a bombshell last week when she announced she wanted all Labor MPs to be "bound", or forced to vote for same-sex marriage when a bill to amend the Marriage Act is next presented to the Parliament.
Mr Husic said he did not support Ms Plibersek's push for MPs to be bound, joining Mr Bowen and Labor leader Bill Shorten who said of the reform "the best way to achieve it ... is not to force people to agree with it, but to convince them".
While some in the party's Left faction, including frontbenchers Jenny Macklin, Penny Wong and Mark Butler support a binding vote, others including Kim Carr and Anthony Albanese, are said to oppose it. That fact, combined with opposition from the Right, means that any push to switch to a binding vote at conference will face difficulty.
Labor MP David Feeney has warned that "it is impossible for Labor to be arguing on the one hand that the Liberals should introduce a conscience vote and on the other hand remove its own", a position echoed by WA Liberal MP Dean Smith.
