Mr Fergusson, who is the equivalent of the Speaker in the New Zealand Parliament, was in Dunedin with a delegation of four other Scottish MPs.
They visited the Otago Settlers Museum, including its new $8.6 million storage building, and he later gave a public lecture on "Ten Years of the Scottish Parliament: the Evolution of Devolution", at the University of Otago.
Mr Fergusson acknowledged there had been strong criticism in some quarters when the Scottish Parliament came into existence 10 years ago.
But the Parliament was now "fully accepted" within Scottish society, with Scots preferring to see decisions on matters such as education, health and transport being made closer to those directly affected, he said.
"We're working as hard as we can to generally bring politics closer to the people."
The Parliament's petitions committee was a key part of running a "very accessible parliament".
This petition approach had also since been adopted by the Australian Federal House of Representatives, he said.
The Scottish Parliament also held an annual Festival of Politics, to promote wider public awareness of political issues, and MPs visited schools as part of an education programme, he said.
During a function at the museum during his visit, Otago Settlers Association president Dr Dot Page and Dunedin Burns Club member Margaret Campbell handed over to the museum a gold snuff box, believed to have once belonged to Scottish poet Robert Burns.
The box was bought jointly by the association and club after its Dunedin owner withdrew it from a recent auction.
