Anti-marriage equality members of the House of Representatives who ignore manager of Opposition Business, Tony Bourke's, call to refrain from nobbling the same sex marriage bill with unnecessary amendments do so at their own peril.
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Mr Bourke rightly suggested it would be a tragedy if the same sort of shenanigans that saw last week's Senate debate degenerate into farce occurred in the House of Reps.
"We could very easily get to a situation where the Senate has approved marriage equality in one form, the House of Representatives has approved marriage equality in a different form, and we get to the end of the year and we still don't have the change," he said.
Such an outcome would not go down well with the voters who had spoken loudly and clearly on the issue.
The good news is that by 4.22 pm no amendments had been moved, Liberal MP, Tim Wilson, had successfully proposed to his partner, Ryan, and, most significantly, Tony Abbott, had said he won't be opposing the legislation.
"I support the will of the people as expressed in the postal survey," he told the house.
Given Mr Abbott is the natural leader of the right that has been trying to claw back control of the parliamentary Liberal Party ever since Mr Turnbull took over as Prime Minister this is a very hopeful sign.
Mr Abbott may be coming to terms with the fact the vast majority of Liberal voters are much more moderate in their views on social equity and issues such as marriage equality than this little clique of conservatives.
This point was made loud and clear by the postal survey which saw voters in Mr Abbott's own electorate support marriage equality at a higher rate than the national average.
It was an outcome that confirmed moderation, a hallmark of many of the policy positions embraced by Mr Turnbull, is more likely to resonate with voters at the next election than the current clash of ideologies which has manifested itself in ongoing bickering over the leadership.
Both Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten, meanwhile, were doing their best to sound prime ministerial as they threw their weight behind a reform that has drawn overwhelming popular support.
Mr Turnbull, on the one hand, rightly noted it was to the Coalition's credit it had able to bring marriage equality legislation before the parliament.
"The postal survey was one of the most remarkable political events of my lifetime," he said. "it is time for us to get on with it".
Mr Shorten, who described the moment as "uplifting" and said Australia had "trailed the world" on same sex marriage for far too long, was generally in agreement with Mr Bourke and Mr Turbull on the need to go ahead and finish the job.
If they can keep their respective troops in order there is every chance it might be a case of "mission accomplished" by Thursday morning.
