Not quite right

Stuff reports:

It is a New Zealand first. A District Court judge is having her conduct examined by a Judicial Conduct Panel after she allegedly shouted “he’s lying” as Winston Peters was making a speech at Auckland’s Northern Club.

Must be tempting to make Winston Attorney-General as a response

Now, a Judicial Conduct Panel, comprising of Brendan Brown KC (former Court of Appeal judge), Justice Jillian Mallon (Court of Appeal judge) and Sir Jerry Mateparae (former governor-general) will hear evidence about what happened on November 22, 2024. …

Stephens said that report should set out – with reasons, findings of facts and the panel’s opinion – whether Aitken should stay in her role and why.

The decision would sit with Goldsmith.

“The Attorney is the ultimate decision-maker,” Stephens said.

That is not quite right. If the Panel doesn’t consider removal is justified, then the Attorney-General can’t remove the Judge. It is only if the Panel concludes removal could be justified, that the Attorney-General then gets the discretion over whether they get removed.

If the Panel considers removal of the judge is justified, I can’t imagine any Attorney-General would decline to remove them.

The post Not quite right first appeared on Kiwiblog.