I didn’t know it was Winston – yeah right!

Radio NZ reports:

A District Court judge accused of interrupting a New Zealand First function at an exclusive Auckland club says she mouthed an inaudible comment after hearing a snippet of a speech about the teaching of tikanga at law school.

But Judge Ema Aitken says that when she did so, she didn’t recognise NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ voice as he was addressing party faithful. And she didn’t know it was a political function, despite a banner at the door.

This deserves a Tui billboard!

The thought that someone would hear Winston speaking, and not recognise who it was (and miss the large banner) is hilarious.

In a letter to the Judicial Commissioner, which has been provided to NZME, the judge gave her account of what happened that night, saying while she was returning from the toilet, she took a wrong turn and inadvertently walked past the NZ First function.

While passing the room, she heard a snippet of a speech from a male speaker saying something along the lines of, “They’re now teaching in law school that tikanga Māori law overrides the Westminster system”.

She said she was surprised and taken aback as she wasn’t expecting to hear the word tikanga at what she assumed was a social function.

“The statement was incorrect to me and mischaracterised the important role of tikanga for lawyers and judges in the District Court processes,” she said in her statement.

As she walked past, she said, she mouthed to a woman seated at a table near the door, who looked familiar, “that’s not true”. She said that would have been inaudible. She later recognised the woman as NZ First MP Casey Costello.

She said she made a comment disagreeing with speaker, reportedly, “He’s lying, how can you let him say that?”

The judge said no one at the table with Costello, which she estimated included at least six others, turned and responded to her comment. She denied shouting and said she was speaking in a normal voice.

The judge said she was quickly approached by a man and a woman, who walked her back down to her function, which was in the room next door.

If all she did was make a comment in a non raised voice to one person, why would she have been escorted back to her function by two people?