There are two judgements exercising the minds of the political class and their camp followers in Canberra.

One is: “Bill Shorten doesn’t mean it. He’s just trying to wedge Tony Abbott and the Liberals on gay marriage.”

The other: “Tony Abbott is scratching around for anything to wedge Bill Shorten and Labor on national security.”

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There is certainly an element of truth in both propositions. So far, Labor’s manoeuvre has been the more successful. Even if we concede that Bill Shorten is nothing but a political opportunist by being a champion of marriage equality, Tony Abbott has been caught flatfooted.

The Prime Minister’s response is a lame excuse for delay. While he has significantly changed his language, now conceding that same-sex marriage is a major issue, his priority is getting the budget measures through the parliament.

Supporters in favour of same-sex marriage gather in Dublin, Ireland.

To bolster his stance he has confected a straw man. Despite the fact that Labor is committed to passing the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small business, he accuses it of sowing uncertainty.

This uncertainty is Mr Abbott’s explanation for the fact small business hasn’t exactly rushed to go further into debt to buy new assets.

The Prime Minister seems to suggest his government can’t chew gum and walk at the same time.

Bill Shorten characterised his private members bill in terms of a non-discriminatory recognition of the dignity of gay love.

“Your relationship is equal under the law,” he said. His clarion call: “If the Irish can do it, why can’t we?”

Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek pose with the same-sex marriage bill. Photo: Getty

The Shorten move was deft politics on two grounds. It seized the moment afforded by the Irish referendum and it headed off a potential showdown at July’s ALP national conference over a “free vote”.

And maybe the luck of the Irish is on Mr Shorten’s side as the Abbott national security wedge backfired badly. It is not only the Opposition with concerns over plans to render some Australians stateless by ministerial whim. Six senior cabinet ministers argued fiercely against the idea. Worse, a blow-by-blow description of their revolt was leaked to the Fairfax papers.

The Prime Minister finessed his position on the run. He is now proposing only to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals, or people who could claim another nationality. But even here there are no details, no departmental assessments. Certainly cabinet didn’t get any but Labor is now soft on terrorism because it will not give this blatantly political ploy a blank cheque.

We are assured that any ministerial decision will be subject to judicial review and no decision will render anyone stateless. Despite a discussion paper giving the impression we are following other like countries, only Britain has gone down this path.

And in what looks like a carefully orchestrated backbench “counter revolt” against “rebel cabinet ministers”, 40 government MPs are demanding not only dual nationals be stripped of their citizenship but any terrorist.

One signatory, Andrew Nikolic, even accused Labor of being a friend of terrorists on radio for expressing concerns.

Surely someone has to take a deep breath before we obliterate a birthright.

Paul Bongiorno AM is a veteran of the Canberra Press Gallery, with 40 years’ experience covering Australian politics. He is Contributing Editor for Network Ten, appears on Radio National Breakfast and writes a weekly column on national affairs for The New Daily. He tweets at @PaulBongiorno