Labor’s Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek has announced that she will introduce legislation for same sex marriage into federal parliament in the coming months.

“Today, Labor’s federal party room endorsed my proposal to bring a Bill to the Parliament to legislate for marriage equality,” Plibersek announced this morning.

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“Marriage equality’s time has well and truly come,” she said, adding, “This issue should be above party politics.”

Ms Plibersek called on the Prime Minister Tony Abbott to ensure that Liberal party members were given a free vote on the issue. Previously Mr Abbott has taken a hardline stance on the issue but softened his position in the run up to the 2013 election by saying that the issue was one for the party room.

It is believed that Ms Plibersek’s bill is virtually the same as the legislation previously put forward by Labor MP Stephen Jones.

Rodney Croome, National Director of Australian Marriage Equality welcomed MS Plibersek’s announcement but stressed that for success the legislation must be supported by both sides of politics and allow for all people to wed.

“We thank Ms Plibersek for her commitment to marriage equality and look forward to working with her and her colleagues to progress this legislation through federal parliament.”

“As Ms Plibersek has acknowledged, cross-party cooperation is key to the success of this reform, and we join her in calling  for cross-party co-sponsorship of the bill.”

Mr Croome also stressed that a successful bill should cover the needs of transgender and intersex people as well as same-sex couples.

“The Jones bill allowed two people of the same sex to marry but was unclear about whether transgender and intersex people could wed.”

“This was raised as a concern by the Law Council of Australia, the Human Rights Commission and transgender groups during an inquiry into the Jones bill in 2012.”

“We call on Ms Plibersek to work with us to ensure her bill creates marriage equality of all loving couples,” Croome said.

OIP Staff