The Northern Club Chronicles . .
District Court Judge Ema Aitken has done something most judges spend their careers avoiding: she’s given evidence under oath about her own conduct, before a panel that will advise the Attorney-General on whether she ought to keep her job.
>> In-House Legal Role – Taupo location – A top opportunity
The central allegation? That on a November 2024 evening at Auckland’s Northern Club, Aitken disrupted an NZ First fundraiser by heckling then-Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters mid-speech. For a sitting member of the judiciary, the situation is an unenviable one.
Aitken’s defence, lead by David Jones KC is straightforward and robust. The defence claimed the allegations made against her are exaggerated and politically motivated. She says she had no idea it was a political event. Nor, she maintains, did she realise the voice coming from the Wintergarden room belonged to Peters until after she had already commented on what was being said.
The Judge’s Account
According to Aitken, she was at the Northern Club for an altogether different purpose – the Auckland District Court Judges Common Room Christmas dinner, where she was among three judges being farewelled.
On her way back from the bathroom, she descended a staircase near the Wintergarden and overheard a male voice making what she considered a factually incorrect claim about tikanga Māori and the Westminster system.
“He said, in what I thought was a derisive manner, ‘they’re now teaching at law school that tikanga Māori law overrides our Westminster system’ or words to that effect.
“The voice was not from anyone in my immediate vicinity… I did not see who was talking or recognise the voice. I did not know who the speaker was or who the audience members were. The voice was coming from the room to the right of the stairs. I knew nothing about that event at all at that point.”
She “mouthed” the words “that’s not true” to a woman who happened to be looking at her through the doorway. That woman turned out to be Customs Minister Casey Costello.
The judge was emphatic that she neither shouted nor entered the function room. “I do not believe I was shouting or yelling,” she told the panel, adding that she is “not a person who shouts or yells, even in the most taxing times.”
She acknowledged some of her comments were “reactionary and rude,” though maintained they were delivered in “a normal speaking voice” – one that she accepted carried in the otherwise silent surroundings.
Competing Narratives
Not everyone shares this recollection. NZ First party secretary Holly Howard, party president Julian Paul, and Dorothy Jones (wife of Deputy Leader Shane Jones) have all testified that Aitken was yelling.
A waitress working the NZ First dinner said she heard someone “yelling” from outside the room – though under cross-examination, she conceded this was “louder than a conversational voice” but “not a scream.”
Costello found it implausible that Aitken wouldn’t have recognised Peters. Given his “distinctive voice” and the duration of his speech, the Minister said, the identity of the speaker would have been apparent. She also said Aitken would have been able to see Peters through the doorway.
There’s also the matter of signage. Multiple witnesses have testified that NZ First branding was visible near the Wintergarden entrance – by the lectern and the doorway. Aitken says she didn’t see any of it. “If I had seen any signage indicating a political event, I would never have said anything,” she told the panel.
The Supporting Cast
Aitken isn’t the only person whose conduct that evening has come under scrutiny. Her partner, Dr David Galler, allegedly had what Costello described as a “hostile” and alcohol-fuelled confrontation with her, accusing the Minister of “killing hundreds of people” and being in receipt of “paid dues” from tobacco companies.
Costello said the encounter was serious enough to prompt a handwritten diary note the following morning.
Michael Reed KC allegedly took photographs and was involved in an exchange that was captured on video footage that was played to the panel earlier this week.
Aitken suggested she is being held responsible for the behaviour of others. “Once I learned the details of their respective conduct, I understood it would be seen as political and indeed theirs was political, given that they knew the political figures and the party involved,” she said. “I did not.”
>> New law jobs daily on LawFuel Jobs’ Network
What She Knew, And When
The judge says she first learned of concerns about Galler’s behaviour on 26 November, when she received a call from Judge Pippa Sinclair. It wasn’t until three days later, when Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu contacted her, that she discovered her own conduct was being viewed as potentially problematic.
It was during that conversation that she also learned of Reed’s involvement.
“That was the first time I became aware Michael Reed KC had been involved in an incident,” Aitken said. “It was also the first time I became aware that my conduct could be seen as potentially serious because a political component was now being attributed to my conduct.”
Aitken says she was not intoxicated that evening. She consumed between one and two glasses of champagne from a bottle her partner purchased on arrival. “At no stage during the evening was I intoxicated, nor was I affected by alcohol,” she told the panel.
What Comes Next
The inquiry continues on Friday, with evidence expected from Judge Pippa Sinclair, her partner Mark Sinclair, and Judge David McNaughton – all of whom attended the judges’ dinner that evening. Aitken will then return to complete her evidence.
The Judicial Conduct Panel’s task is to advise the Attorney-General on whether the judge should be removed from the bench. Whatever view one takes of the competing accounts, the sight of a serving District Court judge defending herself in proceedings of this gravity is a sobering reminder of what can be at stake when private and public roles intersect unexpectedly.
Read LawFuel Daily
