Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has ruled out a free vote in the Australian Parliament on same-sex marriage before 2016 if he is elected Prime Minister and says that so few of his MPs would vote for it that it would not pass now.

'I don't think anyone should expect that this is necessarily going to come up in the next parliament,' Abbott told Fairfax newspapers.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle agreed that Australia is starting to look 'a bit silly' for not going ahead with gay marriage as other countries around the world do so.

The man tipped to be Australia’s next Prime Minister has conceded that he cannot stop his party from eventually supporting marriage equality despite his personal opposition to it.

Australian Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott told Sky News, ‘I can't pretend to bind my party for all time,’ when asked if the Liberal-National Party Coalition might change its stance on gay marriage.

‘It will depend on the view of the post-election party room.’

The premier of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has come out in support of same-sex marriage.

'As a Liberal who believes that commitment and family units are one of the best ways in which society is organized, I support the concept of same-sex marriage,' said Barry O'Farrell to Fairfax Media, dismissing the argument that gay marriage would damage traditional marriage as 'utterly ridiculous'.

A day after his daughters publicly announced their support for same-sex marriage, Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has doubled down in his opposition to same-sex couples being allowed to wed – saying that he will never allow his MPs a conscience vote on the issue while the party line was to oppose it.

Robert Doyle, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, has become the latest senior figure in the Australian Liberal Party to publicly back same-sex marriage and has rubbished the idea that you need both a mother and a father to have a family unit.

‘Don't try and define what a family unit is,’ Doyle told The Age newspaper.

In a TV interview four years ago Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott said he felt 'threatened' by homosexuality. Last night on 60 Minutes Abbott told the the same journalist that he now is disappointed with himself for that comment.

Abbott, who is ahead in the polls to become the next prime minister at the election in September, said he made the comment because the 'cohesion of my family was threatened at that time'.

The Australian Greens say a successful vote on marriage equality in the British House of Commons has inspired them to move forward with another bill on marriage equality despite previous bills being defeated in the Parliament when the Australian Opposition refused its members a conscience vote.

The House of Commons passed its bill on Tuesday in a vote of 400 to 175 votes.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced today that Australians will vote for the next government on 14 September this year.

Gillard said she has given such long notice before the election, some say the longest in history, so that the year's political debates can be 'not of fevered campaign but of cool and reasoned deliberation'.

Australian Marriage Equality said gay marriage will be a key issue in the election.

Australian Marriage Equality has hailed President Obama's unequivocal support for full gay equality and said it challenges Australia's prime minister and opposition leader to do the same.

'Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,' said Obama in his second inauguration speech.

An Australian prime minister has finally endorsed marriage equality, but unfortunately not the current one.

Bob Hawke has become the first former or serving Australian prime minister to support same-sex marriage during a public appearance with fellow ex-PM John Howard.

‘I’m very mich in favor of the law being changed to enable marriage between gay people,’ said Hawke, the Labor prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, ABC News reported.

Nearly a year ago Gay Star News wrote that gay marriage may come to Australia in 2012. The year began full of hope - over 60% of Australians said they supported marriage equality in several polls and the advocacy campaign from Australian Marriage Equality was slickly professional and on-the-ball.