Ten years of Labor rule in Victoria has changed the state.
Under premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan, Victoria has embarked on a decade-long infrastructure agenda and raft of Australian-leading social reforms.
But no state had more COVID-19 lockdowns, net debt is climbing and the government has faced a series of scandals, as well as criticism over its lack of transparency and accountability.
The Big Build, social change and scandal
The Andrews government ministry was sworn in after Labor ended four years of Liberal rule under Denis Napthine and Ted Baillieu on November 29, 2014.
The 2014 state election was effectively a referendum on Melbourne's East West Link project.
Mr Andrews had pledged to rip up the contract to build the contentious toll road if Labor was victorious and ordered the suspension of all work in his first weeks as premier.
The state's auditor-general later found the total cost of cancelling the project topped $1.1 billion.
To soften the blow, Labor promised to build the Metro Tunnel and remove 50 level rail crossings.
While over budget, the Metro Tunnel is due to open to fanfare in 2025 and the level crossing removal program has been expanded and hailed as one of Labor's greatest achievements.
Socially, Victoria enacted laws to ban anti-abortion protesters harassing women outside clinics and became the first state to pass voluntary assisted dying laws in 2017.
But it wasn't long until the government was in turmoil.
Minister Adem Somyurek stood down after being accused of bullying, Steve Herbert quit cabinet for using his taxpayer-funded driver to chauffeur his two dogs and former speaker Telmo Languiller and his deputy Don Nardella were exposed rorting an allowance for country members.
The biggest scandal of the lot was "red shirts rorts".
A 2018 ombudsman investigation found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines by wrongly approving $388,000 in taxpayer funds be spent on campaign staff before the 2014 election.
The money was repaid by the party and no charges were laid by police.
Nonetheless, Labor swept to a second term with a huge majority in what was known as the "Danslide".
Second-term blues
Bushfires, a global pandemic and a high-profile corruption probe knocked Labor's second term off course.
After setting up a royal commission into the state's "broken" mental health system, Victoria was plunged into one of its worst bushfire seasons in memory.
The 2019-20 black summer bushfires burned more than 1.5 million hectares of Victorian land, killing five people and razing more than 400 homes.
But the scale of the devastation paled in comparison to what came next.
Mr Andrews declared a state of emergency in March 2020 as COVID locked down the entire country.
As Victoria was cautiously reopening, cases leaked out of the state hotel quarantine system, sparking a second COVID-19 lockdown for Melbourne that ultimately ran for 112 days.
The premier, ministers, bureaucrats and agency officials fronted a judicial inquiry into hotel quarantine breaches, but none said they could recall whose idea it was to use private security.
In June 2020, Mr Andrews sacked Mr Somyurek from his cabinet - following his return to the frontbench in 2018 - after Channel Nine aired allegations of branch stacking and a recording of him using offensive language about a ministerial colleague.
He was the first of four ministers to depart in the fallout.
A subsequent report by the corruption watchdog and ombudsman exposed misuse of taxpayer resources but again did not recommend any criminal charges.
In the middle of the separate crises, Mr Andrews spent 111 days off work after fracturing his spine and breaking several ribs in a fall.
He and other MPs also became the target of fierce, and at times violent, opposition to pandemic-specific laws passed in late 2021 following Melbourne's sixth and final lockdown.
The COVID-fuelled community anger and division did not dent Labor electorally as Mr Andrews steered it to another thumping win.
Axing the Commonwealth Games, sacked MPs and leadership change
Cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games in regional Victoria was among Daniel Andrews' final acts as premier.
He called a snap press conference in July 2023 to pull the pin on the event, citing estimated costs blowing out from $2.6 billion to between $6 billion to $7 billion.
In September 2023, just days after handing down a landmark housing statement, Mr Andrews announced his retirement from politics, paving the way for heir apparent Ms Allan to replace him.
Both Mr Andrews and Ms Allan forced backbench MPs Will Fowles and Darren Cheeseman out of the Labor party room over past instances of alleged misconduct, reducing its numbers in the lower house.
Mr Fowles was investigated by police but not charged, while Mr Cheeseman has not publicly addressed complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards female staff.
Ms Allan's first 12 months in the top job were dogged by a parliamentary inquiry and journalists probing the decision to cancel the Games.
She confirmed lawyers were hired to provide advice on Victoria withdrawing on June 14 2023, a full month before the Games decision was announced.
The premier denied misleading Victorian parliament on June 13, when as the then responsible minister she told a budget estimates hearing the state was making "tremendous progress" on delivering the Games and gave no indication of budgetary concerns.
The auditor-general later estimated that abandoning the event cost the state more than $589 million, including a $380 million settlement.
Ms Allan has since backflipped on several controversial policies backed by her old boss, including plans to set up a supervised injecting room in Melbourne's CBD and raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
The long-serving Bendigo East MP has instead staked her premiership on housing, repeatedly describing herself as a builder not a blocker.
For all the controversy surrounding construction of the Suburban Rail Loop, a proposed 90km rail line orbiting Melbourne, a planned statue of Mr Andrews might be the government's most contentious build.
State premiers who spent more than 3000 days in the top job are immortalised in bronze statues outside government offices in central Melbourne, under a rule introduced by former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.
The process to install one for Mr Andrews is under way.
