Conservative MPs are scrambling to prevent a push by Liberal MPs to allow a free vote on same-sex marriage, warning "this is not a fight we should be having now".
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The chances of the issue being debated in the partyroom meeting scheduled for this week receded on Monday, swamped by the revelation that South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi planned to resign as soon as Tuesday and set up a new party.
Fairfax Media revealed on Saturday that Liberal MPs who support the law change had planned to raise the issue in the second week of Parliament, after a Senate inquiry report was handed down and after the proposed date for the same-sex marriage plebiscite, February 11, has passed.
Liberal leader of the House Christopher Pyne, who supports same-sex marriage, ducked questions on Monday on whether debate about a free vote for Liberal MPs - who, combined with Labor and the Greens would deliver the numbers to change the law - should be revisited.
"Labor defeated the plebiscite bill for marriage equality last year in a very "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face" move, and we could have had marriage equality probably after this Saturday," he told ABC radio.
"There's no Coalition bill before the house at the moment to deal with marriage equality, and until and if there is, then it's a moot point."
Treasurer Scott Morrison, an opponent of same-sex marriage, said he would "leave the fake news to others. This is not an issue that is focusing the government's attention".
Fairfax Media stands by its report.
Mr Turnbull said on Sunday the issue could be debated again in the partyroom but "the government's position is that which we took to the election".
Supporters of a free vote in the Liberal Party were tight-lipped about their plans on Monday, but Coalition MPs George Christensen and Eric Abetz - who both oppose the change - both pushed back against the prospect of a move by Liberal Party moderates for the government to hold a free vote on same-sex marriage without a national plebiscite.
Mr Christensen said the government needed to stick with the policy it took to the election.
"If this government goes down the road of breaking its agreement with the people that we made that we were going to do to a plebiscite, then, you know, the show's over," he said.
Another political opponent of the law change, who asked not be named, said the net effect of the debate over the weekend - which prompted former prime minister Tony Abbott to speak out on the issue and warn Mr Turnbull not to change policy - was that a law change was less likely.
"There will be no change on the plebiscite, no one wants this debate. All the people pushing for it are in safe seats, or inner-city electorates, or both."
