New Zealand is sharing its knowledge on redress and reconciliation for Maori people, as Australian states follow its path to a treaty.
Andrew Little, the New Zealand Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, has travelled to Australia to meet state government and treaty representatives in Queensland and Victoria.
Following talks on Thursday with Queensland's treaty readiness committee and its Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Craig Crawford, Mr Little spoke with the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria on Friday.
Unlike Australia, colonised under the false legal premise of terra nullius from 1788, the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi with a large number of Maori chiefs in 1840.
"Our history is different," Mr Little told AAP.
"We already had the starting point. All we had to do was come to terms with the fact the Crown has systematically breached it (the treaty) to the degree that it caused significant harm to Maori people."
New Zealand set up the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 to hear settlement claims but it was initially limited to future breaches, before being expanded in 1986 to reach as far back as 1840.
"That's what really opened up the process that we've been in for the last 40 years," Mr Little said.
Redress for Maori tribal groupings, known as iwi, can include financial compensation and sometimes the return of land, on top of an official apology from the Crown.
Each agreement is legislated to make it legally binding.
"The objective of the whole exercise is to restore the relationship of the Crown and the particular iwi," the minister said.
In his discussions with Victorian and Queensland authorities and advocates, Mr Little said his main insight has been that treaties with individual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations cannot be rushed.
"This is about restoration of a relationship and it is about the burden of grievances having been carried through generations," he said.
Asked if Australia could ever hope to foster a relationship with its First Nations people akin to New Zealand, Mr Little said there was no healing without confronting long-standing injustice.
"While there is an injustice that goes unaddressed and unadmonished, there will never be that kind of spiritual peace that goes with countries with multiple different peoples," he said.
"In the interest of social harmony and community peace, these issues have to be addressed. But it is for people in this country to work out how that happens."
Assembly co-chair Marcus Stewart said Australia could learn an enormous amount from New Zealand, as well as Canada.
"One key lesson from both countries, in particular New Zealand, is the economic focus to treaty-making," he told AAP.
"How do we support business, economic ventures, micro-business? There's major opportunities through treaty-making that benefit all Victorians."
The assembly has put its final position to the Victorian government on establishing a self-determination fund - the next step in its treaty process - and Mr Stewart expects a deal could be announced in the next few weeks.
"We are so close you can taste it. We sit right now today, and this is the significance of this meeting, on the verge of history," he said.
Once a deal is made, treaty-making in Victoria could begin as early as next year.
