A "yes" vote in a proposed 2017 plebiscite on same-sex marriage equality would deliver the change immediately, with legislation to be put to Parliament before the next election under a new plan being considered by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
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That legislation would set out the precise wording as well as mandating the timetable for the public vote.
In a sudden acceleration of the reform process that risks inflaming tensions with religious conservatives and most Nationals, the Prime Minister has indicated that the plebiscite, while technically non-binding, would itself be the decider of the controversial reform.
Queensland Liberal Warren Entsch said he had already discussed a plan with the Prime Minister that involved passing contingent amendments to the Marriage Act to achieve same-sex marriage equality, but with the legal force of those changes reliant on majority public support via the plebiscite.
The initial legislation would set a timetable for a plebiscite, perhaps ordering it be held within 100 days of the 2016 election.
The novel process would avoid the problem of binding conservative government members who are strongly opposed by religious principle to the change by making the trigger point for the reform the people's vote itself.
While the Entsch plan is not fully formed, it appears to have found favour with Mr Turnbull and explains why when he was asked in Parliament by Labor's Clare O'Neil if Liberals and Nationals would be bound by the plebiscite if it returned a "yes" result, he responded: "I think it's an absolutely reasonable request and the answer is that the consequence of a 'yes' vote in the plebiscite will be that same-sex marriage will be legal in Australia."
The move came as strong conservatives in the Liberal Party warned allowing same-sex marriage would place enormous strains on the party's relationship with multicultural Australia.
One of relatively few remaining Liberals identifying as a "capital C" conservative on the new Malcolm Turnbull frontbench, Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Social Services Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, used a National Press Club address in Canberra on Wednesday to redefine multiculturalism as a foundation stone of conservative Australia; to defend the tradition of religious conservatism in the Liberal Party; and to argue that marriage is a "bedrock institution" common to all faiths and cultures.
She said that altering this could alienate people and cause political problems for the government.
"A Coalition policy that directly supports same-sex marriage could place under threat some of our most marginal seats which have disproportionately high religious and migrant communities," she said.
But, speaking before the Entsch plan came to light, even she had committed to backing the plebiscite result.
"Certainly I, as somebody who has advocated for all Australians to have a say, clearly I'll be bound by what all Australians have to say, and if the majority view ... I don't believe that the majority view will support [change], but if that's not the case then, of course, I would support that," she said.
In other comments, the Australian-born daughter of Italian migrants, who described herself as both bilingual and bicultural, said the contribution of ethnic minorities to Australia was underappreciated, and that many migrants still suffered from cultural stereotyping, if not outright racial discrimination.
"Try getting a job in this country if your name is Mohammed," she said.
Mr Turnbull had promised to stick with the previous timetable for marriage reform but is expected to argue the Entsch plan would not breach that undertaking, as it is purely procedural and is merely designed to provide certainty to the people when they decide the issue.
