When New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon arrived in Australia for his first state visit, a problem grown at home followed him across the ditch.

The leaders of The Māori Party had accused Luxon of being responsible for the worst decline in race relations in his country "since the early stages of colonisation" after a raft of policy changes.

And when he stood up with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to talk about the trans-Tasman relationship, he again faced questions about whether his government was steering New Zealand and its first peoples "off course".

"I disagree completely. As I've said right from the get go, we're going to be a government for all New Zealanders," Luxon said.

"We want Māori to do well, we want non-Māori to flourish and do well, we know that when Māori are doing well, then New Zealand is doing great and so we have differences of opinion about how to deliver improved outcomes for Māori.

"Part of it is yes we don't think a separate Māori Health Authority delivers that, we think there are better ways in which we can improve those outcomes.

"Our government is going to be very focused on delivery and improving outcomes for all Kiwis, and that's what we're going to do."

But of course, not all New Zealanders are starting from the same position and while it is politically attractive to say everyone will be delivered better outcomes, the practical reality is that some marginalised groups need more and different help to get there.

And it's what seems like an erasure of that understanding from the policy agenda that has sparked protests in New Zealand.

Leaders discuss trans-Tasman relationship

In their opening remarks, Luxon and Albanese discussed their relationship when one was the boss of Air New Zealand and the other was Australia's transport minister.

The men have known each other a long time, and despite being on opposite sides of the political aisle, have worked together too.

And in the highly orchestrated press conference, where journalists were not permitted to ask follow-up questions, both leaders fielded questions on AUKUS and race relations.

This was Luxon's first time abroad as New Zealand's prime minister and he leaned on lines about the economy, well-learned during his election campaign.

Both leaders were asked specifically what they believed they needed to do to alleviate anxiety among their nations' first peoples.

Albanese pointed to the Closing the Gap targets and said reaching them was a "core priority of the government".

The annual Closing the Gap report has been published for 15 years and as recently as June this year, the Productivity Commission found life expectancy among Indigenous Australians was continuing to worsen.

And Albanese answered the question about the anxiety felt by First Nations people against the obvious backdrop of the failed referendum, in which a resounding no vote denied Australia's Indigenous people a Voice to Parliament.

But his answer to the question acknowledged there was in fact a gap.

Luxon responded to the question about how he would alleviate the anxiety of Māori by pointing to the economy, saying there were opportunities for the ties between Māori and Indigenous Australians to "grow and deepen in coming years".

"What I've observed is that we have very strong connections between Māori and Indigenous people of Australia and actually we want to continue to build out that depth of that relationship between them as well," he said.

"It's one of the things I'm going to be talking to potential businesses and investors about this afternoon — about the opportunities that exist in the Māori economy in particular and actually how they can get connected to those opportunities economically."

Māori protest movement growing

Earlier this week, New Zealand's Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer criticised the New Zealand government over a raft of changes made within three weeks of it being sworn in.

"It knows that Māori die more of lung cancer, but it has taken away the policy to stop that. It knows that Māori are dying earlier, but it's taken away the Māori Health Authority. It knows that our Māori language is at risk, but it has now removed the language from all government departments," she said.

'It's an absolute disgrace': In three weeks, NZ's new PM has reignited race relations

New Zealand's new prime minister has moved to wind back policies designed to improve outcomes for Māori and Pasifika people.

Ngarewa-Packer was referencing the Luxon Government's moves to repeal New Zealand's planned tobacco ban, disband the Māori Health Authority and minimise the use of Māori language in the public service.

The changes were announced as part of the coalition deal in New Zealand.

Luxon leads the National Party, but was forced to negotiate with two minor parties to hold enough seats to form government.

The ACT Party and NZ First have long pushed for changes to policies that impact Māori and were able to force some of them during coalition negotiations.

One of the most controversial moves involves an ACT Party bill to hold a referendum on the principles of New Zealand's founding document the Treaty of Waitangi, which underpins Māori claims of sovereignty.

 Luxon agreed to support the bill through its first stage only and the Opposition has questioned him on what he plans to do after that.

He has bought himself some breathing space, but the time for a decision will come and in the meantime, these questions are not going away.

This article was first published on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website. Emily Clark is a journalist with ABC News International. She has been a journalist since 2010, working in current affairs television and digital news.