Victoria's (Australia's second-most populous state) Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) has released a long-awaited report finding that senior members of former premier Daniel Andrews's government engaged in "serious and concerning" conduct, including deliberate concealment, misleading behaviour, and misuse of information, during negotiations over firefighters' pay deals and the eventual merger of two fire services. The inquiry, which began in 2018 following allegations that Andrews had been blackmailed by United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall, found no evidence of blackmail or corrupt conduct, though it identified that secret back-room negotiations led by senior minister Gavin Jennings gave Marshall outsized influence over multiple enterprise bargaining agreements. Andrews defended his actions as being in the public interest, while current premier Ben Carroll — who was not in cabinet at the time — described the behaviour as "poor and intolerable" and pledged to implement the report's recommendations; the Victorian opposition went further, labelling the government a "gangster government" and calling for the dismissal of a senior public servant named in the findings.