In the 3½ years since, senior operatives from the party appear to have learned little.

Accessing a reporter's dictaphone that was placed in a lost property box, and then apparently attempting to use a private conversation it contained for nefarious political purposes, represents the worst type of political bastardry.

It was also breathtakingly stupid.

Despite legal advice that, The Age has learned, was provided to Labor and which drew attention to the illegality involved - including theft and offences under Victoria's Surveillance Devices Act - somehow the recording made its way to an as-yet unknown third party, before it was emailed to Liberal Party members along with an accompanying email designed to inflict maximum factional damage.

Clearly the hope was that the Liberal Party would tear itself apart following the release of the recording. A possible secondary objective - by Liberal operatives suspected of sending the email which alerted party members to the tape - was to pressure Baillieu to relinquish the prized seat of Hawthorn.

The release of the conversation created yet another unwanted passing distraction for Denis Napthine and the Liberal Party. Yet the ramifications for Daniel Andrews and Labor could be more significant and longer lasting.

The Age is confident the recorded conversation between Tomazin and Baillieu was listened to by senior Labor Party officials and staff from Andrews' office prior to its public release on June 24.

But the situation gets murky after this. The conversation with Baillieu, listened to by a handful of people, was copied and uploaded as an audio file. What is not clear is who out of this select group made the decision to pass it on, or to whom it was passed.

Clearly, Andrews has some questions to answer. For a start, he might tell us what steps he took to investigate whether the recording was sent by one of his staff after it became apparent the dictaphone went missing at the state Labor conference on May 17. And what action might he take now that the issue has been brought to public attention?

The irony is Labor didn't need to do this. First, the Coalition was doing a reasonably good job of undermining itself, having lurched from crisis to crisis for much of the past three years.

Second, Labor has been consistently ahead in published opinion polls. In these circumstances you might think Team Andrews would be knuckling down and focusing on policy and strategy, rather than dirty tricks.

At the very least, someone in the party should have been cognisant of the high probability that the stunt would backfire, leaving Andrews and the party he leads covered in its own muck. As it turns out, this is exactly what has happened.