You’d be hard pressed to find two more deceptive sentences than those in the Victorian Government’s response to questions about its secret deal with China.

Sent: Friday, 2 November 2018, 3:55 PM

“The [Memorandum of Understanding] is a confidential agreement between Victoria and China. As is standard with such agreements, it is not a public document.

“The Victorian Government consulted with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade during the MoU's drafting process and DFAT have been provided with a copy.”

The first sentence is the only part of the statement not designed to mislead: on October 25, Victoria and China did sign a confidential agreement on Beijing’s massive infrastructure rollout, called “Belt and Road” .

9NEWS wrote asking for a copy of the agreement and posed other questions to try and shed a little light how a state came to sign up to what is a controversial initiative that would usually be brokered between nations.

Sent: Friday, 2 November 2018, 9:30 AM

“… And can you tell me when a copy of the MoU was sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and when the Federal Government was informed that Victoria was signing on to an initiative that the federal Government has yet to agree to?”

9NEWS also wrote to the Foreign Minister and DFAT asking if either had a copy of the deal and raising some other questions.

Sent: Friday, 2 November 2018, 9:47 AM

“Did anyone in the Victorian Government seek advice about this MoU or inform the minister or DFAT that it was about to be signed before it went ahead?”

By mid-afternoon the minister’s office responded on behalf of the minister and the department.

Sent: Friday, November 02, 2018 2:35 PM

“We became aware in June that Victoria was considering an MOU on the Belt and Road Initiative, but the Government was not informed that an MOU was signed until it was announced on 25 October. We have not been provided a copy of the agreed text.”

So Victoria claims it “consulted with” Foreign Affairs about the draft agreement, while DFAT says it “became aware” of the negotiations and was blindsided when the deal was signed.

And, by 2:35pm on Friday, eight days after the deal had been struck – and five hours after 9NEWS had raised the question – Canberra did not have a copy of the document but, presumably, Beijing did.

At 3:36pm the minister’s office informed 9NEWS, by text, that DFAT had been sent a copy “after 3pm today”.

Victoria’s response arrived at 3:55pm and, by then, it could claim the department “have (sic) been provided with a copy” but a reasonable person could assume its delivery was driven by the media inquiry.

It is also misleading to claim that it is “standard” for MoUs to be secret. Click here for the publicly available text of one signed between Australia and China on investment.

There are dozens of Victorian examples of public MoUs .

Some agreements are kept secret, as with the 2017 deal struck between Australia and China on building infrastructure in third countries (also linked to Belt and Road).

But keeping a document like this secret is a deliberate government choice; there is no “standard” protocol that demands it.

The reported reason given for the secrecy around the 2017 Commonwealth MoU by the then Trade Minister was “both parties are required to agree to release the text of the MOU and China has not agreed to do so".

Why any democratic government would sign a deal and then hide it from the people who elected it on the demand of a one party state is a mystery. It’s also a disgrace. Equally disgraceful is the tissue of deceit the Victorian Government managed to weave into just 37 words when asked for the simplest trace of transparency.