Reports that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has ordered a forensic audit of the mobile phones of his ministers over concerns about leaking are “truly bizarre”, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says.

One Cabinet minister the ABC spoke to said the request was “really odd”, but a spokesperson for the premier refused to comment, saying they did not talk about discussions in Cabinet.

The action followed concerns about the leaking of an announcement that Victoria Police would recruit thousands of officers over the next four years, a plan worth $2 billon.

Mr Guy said the move made the premier look paranoid.

“I’ve never, ever come across a circumstance in politics where a Premier thinks so little of his own team that he is not prepared to trust them and wants to audit their mobile phone use,” he said.

“This level of paranoia is certainly the most extreme I have ever seen.”

Mr Guy said the probe “breaks just about every privacy rule there is”.

“I think it’s quite a bizarre circumstance that the Premier is asking his ministers to do this,” he said.

“Frankly if I was one of his ministers I’d tell him to go and get… I’d tell him to get lost very impolitely.”