Former Canberra magistrate Peter Dingwall has fired a parting shot at outgoing Attorney-General Simon Corbell, saying the ACT hadn't been well-served by an attorney "who's not even a lawyer".
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Mr Dingwall retired from the bench of the ACT Magistrates Court in August after 26 years in the job.
In his first public comments since his departure, Mr Dingwall expressed concerns over a jump in the number of offenders being sent to jail, as well as bolstered powers which allowed prosecutors to temporarily detain Canberrans even after a magistrate had ordered their release.
He believed better policing, and not stiffer penalties, was key to deterring drink drivers and said there should be greater scope for judicial discretion when it came to the territory's zero-tolerance approach to drug driving.
Mr Dingwall said legislators often made changes without consulting the judiciary and said judicial officers should be able to comment, through cabinet submissions, on how new laws might work in practice.
He worked with numerous ACT attorneys-general from across the political spectrum through the years, including Bernard Collaery, Terry Connolly, Gary Humphries, Bill Stefaniak, Jon Stanhope and Simon Corbell.
Mr Dingwall said he had a clear preference for those with a legal background - which took in all except Mr Corbell, the territory's attorney-general since 2006. He's set to step down at this month's election.
"I don't think we've been well-served by having an attorney who's not even a lawyer," Mr Dingwall said in a feature piece marking his retirement for Fairfax Media.
Mr Dingwall, who was elevated to the bench in 1990, was also worried about the increasing number of Canberrans being sent to prison and said there was a need to look at different sentencing options.
He thought periodic detention, which had been phased out, was "a very good sentence" and said while the ACT's new intensive correction order scheme had "much to recommend it", great care needed to be taken "about where the line will be drawn on suitability".
Magistrate Glenn Theakston, a barrister and former counter-terrorism prosecutor, was appointed as Mr Dingwall's replacement.
