Who rules Victoria?

"The labour movement is even stronger."

Following the 2014 election, former Labor Party secretary Nicholas Reece wrote in The Age that the unions allied with Labor set a benchmark for "ground game" campaigning in Australia.

"Trades Hall spent the past eight months mobilising thousands of union volunteers – fire fighters, paramedics, nurses, teachers and others – converting them into a "boots on the ground" campaign army," he wrote.

Andrews has repaid that debt handsomely out of the public purse.

The ambos, who complained they were the lowest paid in Australia (so better value for money?) got their pay rise as have public sector employees across the board.

The Australian Financial Review reported that since Andrews's election Victorian public sector pay has grown faster than any other state or federal bureaucracy.

At the end of last year Victoria's average weekly public sector wage outstripped average private sector renumeration by $333.

The other huge beneficiary of Andrews Government largesse has been the construction industry.

Under what he terms his "Big Build", Andrews has committed to $81 billion worth of public works.

While there are other large and strong unions in this sector, by far the most omnipresent is the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

Around Melbourne bulky work-booted (usually) men display the union's black-and-white logo on clothing or the alternative blue-and-white Eureka Stockade Southern Cross insignia.

Either by design or coincidence the designs look like bikie colours and there is little doubt in Victoria's union hierarchy the 144,000-member strong CFMEU is the apex gang.