The Victorian government has vowed to crack down on gay conversion therapists who claim they can “cure” homosexuality.

The government says legislation to introduce a health complaints commissioner will be brought to parliament later in the year, giving the state specific powers to crack down on unregistered practitioners making unproven claims.

“We have zero tolerance for any person purporting to be able to ‘convert’ gay people through medical or therapeutic means,” the Victorian health minister, Jill Hennessy, said in a statement.

“Any attempts to make people feel uncomfortable with their own sexuality is completely unacceptable.”

Current legislation only allows for registered practitioners to be investigated, leaving those with dubious qualifications to practise without consequence.

A health complaints commissioner, if introduced, will have powers to ban so-called conversion therapists from providing treatments that put “people’s physical and psychological health at risk”.