Victoria examines public sex offender info

Experts will be hauled before a Victorian committee to share their view on whether the details of convicted sex offenders should be made public.

The state parliament's upper house voted on Wednesday to support an inquiry into how data about sex offenders should be stored and when the public should see it.

The push was led by Stuart Grimley of Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, who hopes the review will pave the way for a database featuring the names, postcodes and crimes of offenders, along with a photograph of them.

"Things need to be better. Things need to be changed," Mr Grimley told parliament on Wednesday.

Victorian Labor supports the motion in principle, but believes the review should not be held until a national working group contemplating creating a database completes its work.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been trying to rally enthusiasm for the database among the states and territories.

The opposition backs the motion too, but Reason Party leader Fiona Patten and Greens leader Samantha Ratnam argued there is no evidence that making the details of sex offenders public reduces reoffending.

Nonetheless, Ms Patten - who chairs the legal and social issues committee that will look at the issue - says the success of the motion means the committee will rake over all of the evidence again.

"We will consider everything, we will listen to the experts," she told parliament.

The motion asked that the committee report back by June next year.

There were 8286 registered sex offenders in Victoria in May 2019, 54 per cent of whom were required to regularly report to police.

An auditor-general's report published on Wednesday found some offenders get less supervision than others even if they have a higher risk of reoffending, as Victoria Police has taken an inconsistent approach to managing them.

It has made nine recommendations for improving the situation, all of which the police force has accepted and is working towards.