On December 6, 2023, Victoria became known as an apartheid state.

It could not have been said before.

It would never, ever, have crossed the minds of Victorians that their government might not only applaud it, but enable it, fund it, and chaperone it into position.

For it was on December 6 that the man who negotiated the three Recognition and Settlement Agreements (RSAs) in Victoria told a meeting in a country town that such agreements – including treaty – are necessary because Indigenous people are ‘different’.

‘Because they are different’ is the phrase calmly, openly, and shamelessly spoken by the government official from...