The Victorian Opposition Leader's explanation for what Labor figures did with a journalist's lost dictaphone is unbelievable, Premier Denis Napthine says.
Daniel Andrews has again defended his staff and says he has no idea how a politically damaging recording between a Fairfax journalist and the former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu went from Labor hands to a Liberal Party member, who distributed it by email to hundreds of other Liberal members.
Dr Napthine said Mr Andrews' inability to explain was unbelievable.
"I have listened to Daniel Andrews' commentary and I say fundamentally that it completely failed the believability test," he said on Tuesday.
Dr Napthine said the Baillieu tape affair was being investigated by police and the Liberal Party's administrative wing.
He did not call on Mr Andrews to sack those involved but said: "If staff that were working for me had behaved in a similar manner, they would not be working for me in the future."
Mr Andrews had consistently denied his party had any involvement with the dictaphone, which was lost by the journalist at the ALP's state conference in May.
But Victorian Labor assistant secretary Kosmos Samaras admitted on Monday that he was handed the lost dictaphone, listened to it and copied all its files.
Mr Samaras said he sought legal advice on whether he could distribute the digital audio files, decided against it, then destroyed the dictaphone and its files.
Mr Andrews said his staff was not responsible for the leak.
"I've sought assurances, I've been given assurances. No member of my staff had any involvement in this whatsoever in the distribution of this material," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"It was destroyed, it was deleted, and that was as far as they knew the end of the matter.
"If I knew, then I would be taking you through it, let me assure you."
Mr Andrews also defended Mr Samaras.
"He made a bad call. He is a good person, and that is the end of the matter," Mr Andrews said.
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