The insurance and banking group said the decision would help employees deal with some of the biggest hurdles in “affirming” or changing their gender.

Workers would also be able to have up to 12 months’ of unpaid leave.

ANZ, Coles and Woolworths have previously introduced similar policies and the Albanese Government introduced legislation in September to change the current five days unpaid family and domestic leave entitlement to 10 days paid leave each year.

It follows the introduction to Queensland Parliament of a Bill allowing people to change the gender without having to undergo sexual reassignment surgery to formally register a change of sex. The Bill also establishes two pathways to alter the record of sex of a child aged under 16, namely by parents or a guardian applying directly to the registrar where particular criteria are met, or through the Children’s Court.

It would also allow both parents to be registered as either ‘mother’ or ‘father’, which currently is not the case.

Suncorp said “gender affirmation” looked very different for every individual and was a complex process with multiple steps over a sustained period of time. That included what Suncorp said was social affirmation, which included telling family, friends and collegues.

It also meant changing pronounds and possibly their name. There were legal steps that were needed to be taken such as changing gender and their name on legal documents.

The medical steps included surgery, hormone treatment and the rest and recovery from the surgery.

Suncorp employee Vera Dawson went through the process and said the leave now being granted by Suncorp would make people more comfortable to share their true identity.

She said her own experience was not an easy one and she was still attending appointments.

“People like me now have the freedom and the support of the organisation to make appointments they need and it’s just going to make things so much more painless for them,” she said.