Holly Lawford-Smith says a bill being debated in Victoria’s parliament rolls sexual orientation and gender identity together when there’s “virtually no evidence” of change or suppression practices on the basis of gender identity.

Dr Lawford-Smith, a University of Melbourne senior lecturer, spoke to Sky News about what she found troubling in the bill – also taking issue with the fact Victoria was introducing four new crimes and setting up a “commission to investigate and meet our punishments for these crimes”.

“We should treat sexual orientation and gender identity very differently, and this bill is failing to do that,” Dr Lawford-Smith said.

Sky News host Rita Panahi pointed out a person in Victoria can identify as female without undergoing any treatment or surgery and have it reflected on a birth certificate.

“With sexual orientation, we have something fairly fixed and kind of measurable,” Dr Lawford-Smith said.

“With gender identity, there’s a whole sort of set of cultural ideas behind it, and it’s kind of massively expanded in the last few years what it means to have a gender identity.

“I think this is maybe the thing that lots of the public don’t understand that there was being transsexual, back in maybe the 1970s, and there’s been this huge expansion to the category of people which now goes under the label of gender identity, and that is something very different.”