Gary Judd KC: Treaty is a bald agreement, anchored in its time and place

What [democratic government] cannot do is acknowledge the existence of a separate sovereignty. As soon as it does that, it isn’t a democracy. We can have a democratic form of government or we can have indigenous sovereignty. They can’t coexist and we can’t have them both….

The treaty itself contains no principles which can usefully guide government or courts.

The Helen Clark government took office 10 November 1999 with Clark as Prime Minister and Michael Cullen as Minister of Finance.