The Australian Senate has rejected a bill to legalise same-sex marriage, mirroring the result in the lower house earlier this week.

Senators voted earlier today against the private members bill sponsored by Labour backbenchers Trish Crossin, Carol Brown and Gavin Marshall by 41 votes to 26.

It followed a lower house vote on Wednesday on a separate private members bill put up by Labour’s Stephen Jones, which was defeated 98 votes to 42.

Labour had allowed its members a conscience vote on the issue – meaning they did not have to all vote in the same way – but the coalition did not.

Senior Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said neither of the bills was ever going to pass.

“Overwhelmingly the Australian people saw this debate as a distraction to the real issues facing our nation,” he said in a statement.

Advocates of same-sex marriage say it has broad support in Australia, where same-sex unions are recognised in five states.

However, because marriage is covered by federal legislation, which defines it as only between a man and a woman, couples joined in civil unions are not seen by the national government as married.

Labour Senator Penny Wong, who has a baby with her female partner, said despite the defeat the cause for same-sex would continue.

“Social change in this country often isn’t won the first time round, sometimes not even the second time round,” she told the Australian Broadcasting corporation.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that UK Prime Minister David Cameron believes that faith schools should not be allowed to teach that homosexuality is a sin.

The Daily Mail unearthed the remark made by Mr Cameron in an interview with a gay lifestyle magazine ahead of the last general election.

According to the Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce, when Mr Cameron was asked if faith schools should stop teaching that homosexuality is a sin, he said: “Basically, yes, that’s the short answer to that, without getting into a long religious exegesis.

“I don’t want to get into an enormous row with the Archbishop here. But I think the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through — sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom line.”

The news comes amidst concern over the Government’s plans to rewrite the definition of marriage.

Mr Cameron wants to introduce same-sex marriage by 2015. However, a petition opposing any change has now been signed by more than 600,000 people.

Earlier this year Mr Cameron lashed out at churches for “locking out” gays by supporting marriage between one man and one woman.

He said: “I just want to say I am absolutely determined that this Coalition government will follow in that tradition by legislating for gay marriage in this Parliament.”

He also said that the Church is on the wrong side of the argument and should not “be locking out people who are gay, or are bisexual or are transgender”.