Powered-up Andrews to flex newfound muscle

The party was still basking in its win on Sunday with Deputy Premier James Merlino declaring Mr Andrews to be one of Victorian Labor’s all-time greats after Saturday’s rout of the Liberal-National Coalition.

With lower house counting paused on Sunday and several contests still in doubt, the government looked on-track to pick up at least six seats and a thumping parliamentary majority.

Recriminations continued among the Liberals on the day after their heavy defeat while the Greens will watch the resumption of vote-counting anxiously, facing the prospect of heavy losses among their MPs.

Mr Andrews lost no time on Sunday, saying he intended to reshuffle his cabinet, bring back Parliament this year, maintain his government’s hectic pace of road and rail construction and ‘rebuild’ the state’s mental health system.

The Premier also promised more action on domestic violence, which he dubbed “the number-one law and order issue in our nation” in a pointed dig at the Coalition’s failed election campaign on youth crime and ‘gangs’.

In addition to its lower house gains, Labor also looks to have won five more seats in the State Parliament’s upper house, effectively sweeping away its opponents’ ability to thwart the government’s legislation.

With 19 members in the 40-seat chamber, Labor is effectively in control of the Legislative Council, making it far easier to get its policy program passed and Mr Andrews made it clear on Sunday that he intended to flex his newfound legislative muscle.

“We’re looking at a very different Legislative Council,” the Premier said.

“There’s a lot of counting to go, but I think that chamber might be a far more effective chamber in terms of getting things done than it was for the past four years.

“There’ll be plenty of work to do when the Parliament is back in earnest for a full sitting program early next year.”

Mr Andrews said his victory was down to pursuing policies in health, education and other areas that resonated in the community but garnered little attention in the “Spring Street bubble”.

The Premier also said his government’s record on delivering infrastructure had been clearly visible through all the projects on the ground in Melbourne and around the state.

“The community, right across the state has seen all the high-viz, all the projects, not talk, not promises, actual projects, actual employment, building stuff that should have been built decades ago,” the Premier said.

He was scathing of the Coalition’s campaign messages and of the tactics the opposition deployed during the campaign.

Mr Andrews said the state’s voters had “comprehensively rejected the negativity, the fear, the spite, that small brand of nasty politics that was on offer and was rejected in record terms''.

The Premier predicted the promised royal commission into mental health would result in “rebuilding” of Victoria’s mental health system and said there would be more reform of the state’s effort to combat family violence.

“Equality is not negotiable in this state, that’s why taking action on family violence has been a priority for us, and a priority for Victorians,” Mr Andrews said.

“That is the number-one law and order issue in our nation and we are the number-one actor in doing everything we can to keep women and children safe.”

The final make up of the upper house chamber is yet to be determined but the Liberals' election nightmare looks to have played out there, too.

The Coalition looks likely to lose six of its 16 MPs from the chamber along with its ability to effectively block Labor legislation in the upper house.

The Greens face a near upper house wipe-out, potentially losing up to four of its five members of the chamber.

A motley cross-bench collection of up to eight micro-party members, many of them elected through "preference-harvesting" deals, is tipped to give the upper house an unpredictable edge over the next four years.

Mr Andrews indicated on Sunday that he may be willing to consider electoral reform that would end the group voting ticket system that allowed the preference harvesting to be successfully used.