Judicial Conduct Panel rejects Judge Aitken’s call for a ‘misconduct’ test for dismissing judges

The Judicial Conduct Panel has rejected an application by District Court Judge Ema Aitken for a legal threshold to be set for judicial misconduct that would justify the removal of a judge from the bench.

The panel – comprising retired Court of Appeal Judge Brendan Brown KC, former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Justice Jillian Mallon from the Court of Appeal – ruled on Tuesday that these issues could be determined only once the factual evidence against Aitken had been heard.

Also to be determined at a two-week substantive hearing in February is whether it would be sufficient for a misconduct finding that Aitken ought to have known she was interrupting a speech by then Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters at the Northern Club in November 2024.

At an interlocutory hearing on Monday, Aitken’s lawyers, David Jones KC, Deborah Manning and Simon Lamain, sought clarification of the standard against which her conduct would be assessed, along with the threshold for when judicial behaviour becomes serious enough to justify removal.