Senator to trigger gay marriage vote

A crossbench senator has vowed to use federal government legislation amending marriage laws to force a vote on same-sex marriage.

Nick Xenophon Team senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore has circulated amendments to government legislation, which makes minor and technical changes to several different laws including the Marriage Act, in order to legalise gay marriage.

The legislation was due to be debated on Wednesday but the Senate ran out of time.

"This will come back up though and in the meantime, I urge all parties to use this opportunity for parliamentarians to do the job we were elected to do," the senator said in a statement.

"We believe that there should be a free vote of the parliament."