Senators filibuster after running out of bills to debate

Senators have rambled on in Parliament about their favourite television shows and thoughts about the Australian flag after running out of things to debate.

With no bills ready to discuss, senators were told this morning to prepare 20-minute speeches to fill up time before lunch, Fairfax Media reports.

Queensland senator James McGrath used his allotted time talk about the Last Night of the Proms concert which he described as one of his "favourite TV programs".

He also enlightened his colleagues with a lengthy history of the Australian flag.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie used her time to praise the Nationals' candidate for McEwen, James Anderson, but forgot his name.

"In the seat of McEwen we ran Andrew...Andrew, Andrew, Andrew...It will come to me," she said.

"He runs a stock feed store in… in a place starting with T just down from Yea and Seymour."

Mr Anderson live in Tallarook.

Senate Mitch Fifield blamed this morning's debacle on Labor's private member's bill on same-sex marriage.

The Opposition Leader and a group of crossbench MPs separately introduced identical bills to legalise gay marriage.

"We don't mind who gets the credit," Mr Shorten said, offering to work with the crossbench and coalition MPs on legislation.

"What will stand for all time is this parliament's statement that marriage is about love not about gender."