An inquiry looking into whether details of convicted sex offenders should be made public has been confirmed in Australia, after a new report found that sex offenders got less supervision than other offenders even when they had a higher risk of reoffending.

The Upper House in the state of Victoria agreed to the inquiry on Wednesday, which was overwhelmingly voted through in a motion, with 35 members voting in favour of the inquiry and four against the proposal.

The inquiry was also called for by Stuart Grimley of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, a political party which focuses on reforms to the justice system. The Justice Party is named after its founder, Derryn Hinch. Hinch would like to see sex offenders’ full postal addresses made public rather than just their postcodes.

Victoria Police has been asked by the state’s auditor-general to provide further details about its processes for handling registered sex offenders.

Data confirms that there were 8,286 registered sex offenders in Victoria in May 2019, 54 per cent of whom were required to report regularly to police.

Some politicians do not agree with making registered sex offenders’ details public, and say there is no evidence that making this kind of information available to the public reduces reoffending.