Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan said Mr Abbott was side-stepping on the critical issue of equality. 

“He is going down in the history books as a blocker, not a lover of equality,” Ms Allan said. 

“We're a party that believes in equality and this is an equity issue.”

She said in Labor’s last term of government, they had ammended 50 pieces of legislation to acknowledge couples in domestic same-sex relationships. 

Legalising same-sex adoption was an issue Victorian Labor took to the last election and the process was now under way, she said. 

She said those who held concerns for children raised in same-sex relationships were fear-mongering. 

“That's an argument put forward by opponents of equality...it’s not grounded in any basis of factual reality,” she said. 

She said Victoria as a state did not have the power to enact marriage equality and it was an matter for commonwealth jurisdiction. 

State Minister for Equality Martin Foley joined with Ms Allan in his criticism of the Prime Minister’s evasion of the issue. 

“Tony Abbott’s refusal to allow the Federal Parliament to move ahead with marriage equality is out of touch with the Australian public and a...denial of basic equality and respect for LGBTI people,” Mr Foley said in a statement. 

“His dwindling band of supporters cannot stand in the way of a global movement for change.”