Daniel James

We were the victims of massacres, we were the victims of disease and alcohol that was brought here.

The tremendous wealth that was created in this place through things like the gold rush,

Aboriginal people never saw, even though it was the plundering of their land that resulted in that.

The billions of dollars that have been generated through our waterways and land and skies, we've never seen a cent of.

We were deprived of our rights.

And so, yes, we are a minority, but we also are the first peoples of this place.

And this treaty and the truth-telling process you looked before it is a reckoning of that, and it shows a state that is mature enough and bold enough to be able to

deal with these particular issues in a mature and forensic, but also incredibly nuanced way.

And so the response from sections of the media was entirely predictable, trying to conflate it with things like the referendum, which is a completely different thing.

This is it.

This is what's happening.

And if people want to conflate that with the referendum result for political purposes, then we'll wave to them as we go over the hill and down the road.

Because I think that people conflate the referendum result with actual political mileage and gain to be had at the expense of First Nations people.

It's only with blackfellas that we're asked to have referendums, to put it to the vote.

Well, this thing has survived two state elections, which was a key platform for the...

Andrew's Labor government and did have bipartisan support from the national and liberal parties before they chickened out of it and saw an opportunity after the referendum to try and gain some sort of political capital out of it.

But I think the last referendum we had in Victoria was around daylight saving.

So that's the kind of referendums we have at the state level here in Victoria.

Why would we have a referendum on this?

And anyone saying that the government is planning to have a referendum to enshrine this in the constitution of the state is just either mistaken or they are lying for political gain or for clickbait.