But Allan Anforth has knocked back the attempt to have him removed, telling government lawyers he does not resile from his beliefs, but nor do they make him in any way biased in matters of law.

"I am entitled to hold a view that gender and race issues exist in the community," he said.

"I am required to have an open mind to the issues, not an empty mind."

Mr Anforth, a member of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, found against the government in a significant case brought by a Chinese-trained doctor alleging he had been discriminated against when ACT Health denied him a 12-month intern placement at Canberra Hospital.

But Dr Wang struggled to get the intern placement, which he needed to practice in Australia.

The ACT government, like most jurisdictions, has a policy of preferring Australian-trained doctors, arguing they are the best trained for the local medical system and represent the best return on investment.

Mr Anforth, in an interim decision in January, found the policy had directly discriminated against Mr Wang because of his race.

But in a strange turn on Thursday, ACT Health tried to have him removed from sitting on the case any further.

The push came after Mr Anforth was overheard in casual conversation as lawyers packed up following a directions hearing in a small ACAT room in June.

He was overheard talking with an Australian National University professor about a Four Corners episode concerning bullying of registrars by specialists in the medical system, and spoke of his daughter's experience with a royal college she was involved with.

Mr Anforth told the professor his daughter's college had been criticised for discriminating on gender grounds and against those tutored by overseas-trained specialists.

He also said he had received racist emails about his earlier decision in the Dr Wang case.

ACT Health used the conversation to allege Mr Anforth held views that "widespread" gender and race issues existed within the medical profession.

It said he was biased and should recuse himself.

He rejected that allegation on Wednesday, saying he held a view that gender and race discrimination exist generally in the community, but not that it was widespread in the medical profession.

He said: "None of this has anything to do with the exercise of statutory construction that I was called upon to make.

"None of it has anything to do with the selection of interns in Canberra or anywhere else."

The tribunal's decision in January was an interim one, and was not final.

That's because Mr Anforth found there was indirect discrimination against Dr Wang as well, but needed to hear further evidence on whether it was reasonable in the circumstances.

But six months later, the government has alleged Mr Anforth had no power to make an interim decision of that kind.

That came despite the parties originally agreeing Mr Anforth did have such authority.

He told lawyers for ACT Health they could deal with the issue through an appeal, rather than trying to have him recuse himself.