The Victorian premier is refusing to respond to formal enquiries from the state’s privacy commissioner about phone snooping.

It is alleged that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has demanded unfettered access to parliamentarians’ and senior public servants’ mobile phones.

Reports say Mr Andrews forced members of his cabinet to hand over their phones to experts from KPMG as part of a probe into internal leaks.

But the news was noticed by privacy commissioner David Watts, who launched an inquiry into what could be “significant privacy issues” if the allegations are correct.

The commissioner has requested more information from the Department of Premier and Cabinet and KPMG, but says he has received only silence on both fronts.

DPC secretary Chris Eccles reportedly responded to the commissioner late last year, refusing his requests on the grounds of cabinet confidentiality.

Mr Watts said KPMG let the January 10 deadline to respond to questions about the alleged phone audit pass without saying anything.

Prominent Melbourne radio figure radio Neil Mitchell, who received the leaked data in question, said the non-compliance placed the government beyond the watchdog’s reach.

“If you accept [Eccles'] argument that this is a matter of cabinet deliberation and therefore the privacy commissioner can go nowhere near it, it means cabinet is totally above the law - they can do whatever they like,” he said.

It is not the first stoush between the privacy commissioner and the Andrews Government.

Mr Watts has previously threatened to resign over government plans to merge the office of the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection with the state’s FOI functions.

This would replace the statutorily-independent FOI and privacy roles with a single commissioner.

A bill for these changes is before parliament.