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Federal Police illegally leaked a recording of a phone call between a union boss and an ACT political staffer, a lawsuit claims. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union ACT secretary Dean Hall has launched a case in the ACT Supreme Court in a bid to find out who leaked the phone tap. The union has asked the court to grant discovery to information relating to the leak, including who within the police accessed the information internally, communications between government agencies, and the diary of senior police involved in the investigation. The matter briefly appeared in court on Friday and will come before Justice John Burns again next week. In the conversation in 2015, believed to have been recorded by the royal commission into trade union corruption, government staffer Maria Hawthorne briefed Mr Hall on a meeting between then police minister Joy Burch and assistant commissioner Rudi Lammers. The recording was then leaked to the media. In the fallout, Ms Burch was forced to resign from cabinet and Ms Hawthorne as her chief of staff. In June 2016, the CFMEU - who suspect the AFP illegally leaked the recording - asked the Commonwealth Ombudsman to investigate the matter. That same month, the Ombudsman referred the matter back to the AFP. In August, the matter was then referred Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, who then referred it back to the AFP for internal investigation in September. The AFP launched the internal investigation in May this year. The AFP confirmed the investigation is ongoing. "As this investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further," a spokesman said. The AFP also declined to comment on the legal proceedings. CFMEU national construction secretary Dave Noonan said the union had taken the legal action as it had become concerned by the length of time the investigation had taken. "This is a very serious matter, which cost the ACT police minister and a member of her staff their jobs. It should not be swept under the carpet," he said. "A year and a half after the illegal phone tap leaks occurred, we still have no answers. We hope to find some through the court. " Mr Noonan said both the ACT Liberals and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash had used information about the incident in the ACT Parliament and the Senate respectively. "Their offices should also be scrutinised," he said.

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