Despite vocal opposition from the Coalition and a new women’s group, Labor bill looks set to pass parliament

The Victorian parliament is gearing up for a debate over the rights of transgender and non-binary people to be able to choose the sex listed on their birth certificates.

Under current law in Victoria, in order for transgender people to have their birth certificate changed to affirm their gender, they have to have undergone sex affirming surgery, often at great cost. It is something many transgender people do not wish to undertake, it is not covered by Medicare, and often the surgery is not available in Australia.

On Tuesday the legislative assembly will debate the births, deaths and marriages registration bill, which will mean people will be able to change the recorded sex on their birth certificate to male, female or a sex descriptor of their choice.

The reason for the proposed change is that often when providing documentation, trans people will need to out themselves as trans to prospective employers, landlords and other situations where identification documents are required.

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The person making the application must make a statutory declaration when nominating the sex to be recorded, and must include a statement from an adult who has known them for 12 months or more who believes the application is being made in good faith and supports the change.

“This choice is important because a list of descriptive terms to describe a person’s sex in their birth registration has not otherwise been widely agreed within the general community,” Victoria’s attorney general, Jill Hennessy, said in the second reading speech for the bill.

“The only limitation on the use of sex descriptors in the bill is a discretion for the registrar to refuse to register a descriptor that is obscene or offensive, or cannot practicably be established by repute or usage.”

People will need to have been living in Victoria for 12 months before being able to apply to change their birth certificate, too.

Parents or guardians can make applications on behalf of their child, but children under the age of 16 will only be able to change their birth certificate with an assessment by a doctor or registered psychologist that the child has the capacity to consent to the application, and the alteration is in their best interests.

The Labor government last attempted to pass similar legislation in 2016, but it failed in the legislative council by one vote after the Coalition opposed it. Tasmania passed similar laws earlier this year, and it is similar to laws in the ACT, Western Australia and South Australia.

In the debate on that bill at the time, Coalition MPs raised concern about the implications of the bill for single-sex facilities like gyms, domestic violence shelters, or in the sporting world.

The Coalition is again set to vote against the legislation. The shadow attorney general, Edward O’Donohue, told the Age while the Coalition supported people living as their identified gender, birth certificates “are intended to record biological sex rather than gender identity”.

A new feminist group called Victoria Women’s Guild opposes the bill being put through parliament without public consultation. Included in the guild are a number of academics and radical lesbian feminists. They argue that the bill should be delayed to give time for more scrutiny.

“The governments of Scotland and New Zealand both recently deferred similar legislation due to concerns from women’s groups and a recognition that they had not properly consulted with affected communities,” a guild spokesperson, Nina Vallins, said in a statement. “Victoria similarly needs to allow further scrutiny and a chance for women’s voices to be heard.”

A group of around 100 protesters gathered on Thursday night outside an event put on by the organisation at the University of Melbourne to discuss their concerns with the bill.

Despite the vocal opposition to the legislation, this time it is expected to pass, with the support of the Greens, the Reason Party and the Animal Justice Party.

But it is not guaranteed.

The Reason MP Fiona Patten told Joy FM’s The Informer last week she had met with a number of women’s groups and flagged potential amendments to address issues with other legislation such as equal opportunity law to reflect the change in recognised sex descriptors.

Patten remains a supporter of the bill, however, saying she told the women’s groups that they were unlikely to change her mind on the legislation.

She urged people to contact politicians with personal stories of how the law change would affect them.

• This article was amended on 12 August 2019. The legislative assembly will debate the bill on Tuesday 13 August, not Monday 12 as originally stated.