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MEMBERS of The Nationals party聽have rejected the notion of a plebiscite on marriage equality and instead support a parliamentary vote on the matter, according to an Australian Marriage Equality (AME) poll.

While the poll signals a change from the party, the apparent shift in opinion is not total: 57.5 per cent of Nationals members oppose the plebiscite, while 56.3 per cent support a parliamentary vote.

Slightly more pronounced is the sense that its members have grown tired of the issue, with 63.5 per cent indicating they believe the plebiscite has “poor or very poor” value, and 61.9 per cent want the issue to be over with “sooner rather than later”.

The news increases pressure on National MPs to act on marriage equality, who have a policy of not supporting it. Their聽Coalition counterparts, the Liberals, voted to not support the issue nor to have a conscience vote on聽it during a party room meeting in mid-2015.

In response to the poll results, AME national director Rodney Croome said this shows regional and rural Australians – the Nationals’ main membership demographic – want federal parliament to move on issue聽soon and for the government to “drop its plan for an expensive, divisive and聽delaying plebiscite”.

“Rural and regional Australians want government money spent on essential services like hospitals and聽schools,聽not wasted on聽what is basically an elaborate, expensive and pointless opinion poll,” Croome said in a statement.

“The message to the National Party, and the Coalition broadly, is to abandon the plebiscite and allow its federal members a free vote so parliament can pass reform as soon as possible.

“The political reason for the plebiscite was to smooth over divisions in the Coalition and take marriage equality off the agenda in the lead up to the election but that hasn鈥檛 worked.

鈥淚t’s time for Malcolm Turnbull to bring back marriage equality legislation, allow a free vote and get this done straight away so Australia can move on.”

The results come after a heated week of public debate on the issue, which included聽Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s out lesbian聽sister and City of Sydney Liberal councillor Christine Forster publicly disagreeing with her brother on the issue .

Marriage is good for our society. That’s why it’s better for all of us if more can be married

鈥� Christine Forster (@resourcefultype)

Allowing same sex couples to marry doesn’t damage the institution in any way. It honours it

鈥� Christine Forster (@resourcefultype)

The openly gay Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong, published an essay in The Monthly about聽the damage from聽the argument that same-sex parents are harmful for their children.

Meanwhile, the Greens’ spokesperson on marriage equality, South Australian Senator Robert Simms, has聽said a plebiscite was “about as popular as its architect, Tony Abbott”.

“Poll after poll shows the Australian community wants the government to legislate for marriage equality,” Simms聽said in a statement.

鈥淲hen Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister he promised a different style of leadership and a different direction for his government, yet all we鈥檙e seeing is the same stale old Abbott-era policies.

鈥淢r Turnbull should grant a free vote on marriage equality this week and end this farce over a national plebiscite.鈥�

According to AME and , there is majority support for marriage equality聽at a federal level聽now, with 76聽out of聽150 House of Representatives聽MPs now publicly聽in favour, 41 out of 76 Senators.