The arguments over same sex marriage are all too familiar but look set to get another airing when parliament sits for the first time this year.
Labor frontbencher Terri Butler concedes Australians are sick of parliament bickering over the issue and believes people just want MPs to get on and support it through a free vote.
But leader of government of business in the House of Representatives, Christopher Pyne, says it is Labor which is standing in the way of marriage equality having rejected a national plebiscite last year, a vote that would have taken place next weekend.
"If that vote had been a yes vote for marriage equality, which I anticipate it would have been, we could have had marriage equality in Australia within a matter of weeks," Mr Pyne told reporters in Adelaide on Sunday.
Ms Butler hit back, saying talk about the plebiscite was now irrelevant.
"There wasn't (a plebsicite), there won't be, but we can have a free vote, we can pass marriage equality in this term," she told reporters in Canberra.
Liberal minister Josh Frydenberg expects Labor will eventually back down and support the plebiscite, but Ms Butler said that was just wishful thinking.
Parliamentarians are returning to the nation's capital for Tuesday's sitting.
Gay Liberal backbencher Tim Wilson has played down reports of a renewed push among a clutch of Liberal MPs to have a free vote, saying it's not news he wants a change in the law, but he's sticking to his party's commitment for a plebiscite.
A Senate inquiry into same sex-marriage draft laws in January has yet to report back.
"When that committee reports, when that inquiry is concluded, obviously there is going to have to be a discussion," Mr Wilson told ABC television on Sunday.
"Nothing to do with me pushing for anything or anybody else."
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has warned against abandoning a plebiscite, saying it would break a key election promise.
"Malcolm Turnbull made a clear election commitment that the marriage law would only change by way of people's plebiscite, not free vote of the parliament," the former prime minister told Fairfax Media.
Several other conservatives have pushed back, with Sydney Liberal MP Craig Kelly arguing that allowing a free vote on the issue would be a "betrayal".
Liberal MP Warren Entsch, one of the coalition's leading advocates of same-sex marriage, said he would negotiate privately with colleagues to deal with the issue "once and for all".
Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton said ditching the election promise of a plebiscite would only underscore the disconnect between politicians and people as seen with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.
"Whatever people's views are on redefining marriage, everyone agrees that politicians should keep their promises," Mr Shelton said.
The prime minister on Sunday insisted the coalition's policy remained unchanged.
"I've got no doubt all these matters will be discussed in the party room," Mr Turnbull told the Nine Network.
"But I'm the prime minister and the government's position is that which we took to the election - which is that this issue should be determined by a vote of every Australian in a plebiscite."
