The Yoorrook Justice Commission's declaration of Victoria's colonial past as genocide has been welcomed by independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, who is calling on the federal government to support truth-telling, deliver treaty, and end policies she says enable "modern-day acts of Genocide".

In its final report tabled in the Victorian Parliament on Tuesday, Australia's first formal truth-telling inquiry recommended that the state government consider various forms of redress — including land restitution, financial compensation, tax relief, and other benefits.

The report also presents a confronting account of a history long suppressed. It outlines how, since colonisation in 1834, "mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal, absorption and assimilation combined to bring about the near-complete physical destruction of First Peoples in Victoria".

The Commission found that by 1901, between one and 5 per cent of the pre-colonisation First Peoples population remained, the result of "a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups".

"This was genocide," the report states.

Senator Thorpe said the term applies not only to Victoria but to First Peoples across the entire country.

"It is the federal government's responsibility to uphold our international human rights obligations, including the prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide," she said.

"During my time as a senator, I have continuously called out the genocide on First Peoples of this country and sought to bring this to the public attention, both nationally and internationally."

The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman said the truth "is nothing to be afraid of if you are willing to end the harm," and thanked those "staunchly committed to telling the truth and have fought so hard to expose it and finally tell our stories".

"It is an opportunity for justice, accountability, healing and a chance to build something better for everyone," she added.

The findings of the reports were informed by 67 days of public hearings, testimony from over 200 witnesses, and input from more than 2,000 people — including 1,500 First Peoples.

Throughout the inquiry, 16 formal apologies were made by ministers and department heads. The Commission also heard that billions of dollars have been generated by the government from land and water, with little benefit to First Peoples.

In addition, Yoorrook received over 1,300 written submissions, engaged more than 9,000 individuals, reviewed nearly 10,000 government documents, and took part in over 400 community events.

In the report's foreword, Yoorrook Chair Professor Eleanor Bourke AM wrote: "Our lands were taken, and with them, something deeper: the essence of culture, and the ability to continue traditional practices and maintain identity.

"Death, violence, disease, dispossession and government control changed the landscape."

On genocide, Senator Thorpe was unequivocal.

"The policies of genocide, assimilation and destruction are not behind us, they are the foundations of the systems that continue to harm our people today. This is why in the Northern Territory alone up to 40 First Nations people are arrested per day, and child removals continue to climb," she said.

"This is not just a state issue, it is a national tragedy.

"If you know a wrong is being committed, you have to make it right."

Jill Gallagher, a Gunditjmara woman and Chief Executive of VACCHO, told the ABC the finding of genocide was indisputable.

"We don't blame anyone alive today for these atrocities, but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth — and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings," she said.

Earlier this year, Senator Thorpe introduced a bill to bring Australian law in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) — a key recommendation of the Yoorrook report — but it was rejected.

She argued Labor blocked the bill to protect its own interests, calling it a "continuation of the colonial and genocidal legacy."

Calling for national leadership, Senator Thorpe said: "The formal recognition of Genocide and our rights to Treaty as independent nations, nation to nation, is powerful.

"Now the Federal Government must follow, accept this truth, and facilitate a national response led and directed by First Peoples."