Tasmania and Victoria are racing to be the first state of Australia to get same-sex marriage, as Greens push forward on the issue.

The Greens’ Melbourne candidate Brian Walters told The Age that he would introduce a private member’s bill to allow same-sex marriage if he wins Education Minister Bronwyn Pike’s seat at the state election this month.

Meanwhile in Tasmania, Greens leader Nick Mckimm will today re-introduce a bill that could make Tasmania the first Australian state to allow same-sex marriage.

Although marriage is considered a federal law, but if any state pushes on the issue, the High Court may decide in favour of allowing same-sex marriage, loophole-hunting legal experts believe.

“The race is on,” concludes marriage equality campaigner Alex Greenwich.

“The Greens are in a coalition government in Tasmania and this puts them in an unique position to get their bill through. At the same-time the Victorian Greens will have an easier time then their federal counterparts as the Victorian ALP passed a motion in support of marriage equality at their last state conference.

“The first state to allow same-sex marriage can also look forward to experiencing a windfall in revenue generated by same-sex weddings, as experienced in the US state of Massachusetts when it became the first US state to legalise same-sex marriage in 2004,” the Australian Marriage Equality co-convenor adds.

The state push comes at a time when more Federal MPs are declaring their support for full legal equality for Australia’s same-sex couples. The ALP’s Bill Shorten implied his support on Monday night’s live Q&A show and the Age has reported that the Coalition’s Warren Entsch has reinforced his support for same-sex marriage and has been now joined by fellow Liberal MP Mal Washer.

“The support from all sides of politics and at State and Federal levels proves that marriage equality is not the fringe or protest issue it has wrongly been labelled as, but a mainstream issue that is about love and equality,” says Greenwich.