Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has welcomed details on the Government’s Plebiscite on marriage equality.

The date – confirmed as February 11 2017 - fulfils the Government’s commitment to hold a plebiscite as soon as practicable.

“This gives clarity to the public and the Parliament,” Mr Taylor said.

The Plebiscite, to be run and managed by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), will ask voters: ‘Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?’

“Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced the Plebiscite (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill 2016 to Parliament today. It has been designed to be as fair and transparent as possible, with funding to be provided equally to the official ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns,” Mr Taylor said.

“First and foremost, the plebiscite must be fair and respectful to all sides of the debate and I can assure Hume constituents that I will be applying those same standards of fairness to discussions in my own electorate.

“I have always believed that this is an issue for the people, not politicians.”

Voting will be compulsory and the result will be determined by a simple majority of votes (50 per cent + 1 vote).

“As we head to the February vote, I appreciate this is a significant discussion for many of my constituents and that differing views are strongly held by many individuals,” Mr Taylor said.

“But Bill Shorten must now draw a line in the sand. It is time to end the politics on marriage equality.

“The fastest way to guarantee that there is a vote on same sex marriage in this Parliament is to support the Plebiscite.”