She was appointed as a magistrate in 2010, and sworn in as chief magistrate in 2011, coming to the job after a career in England and as a military lawyer.<\/p>\n
To her, putting someone in jail and throwing away the key is not the best option when rehabilitation could better protect the community.<\/p>\n
“They will come out,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And if they come out brutalised, [with] the issues that cause their offending not addressed, you’ll just see worse and more crime.”![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9eadc49925060ffed75d1bd98626ce26.jpeg\")
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Former ACT chief magistrate Lorraine Walker says rehabilitation is more effective to improve community safety than prison sentences. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
But make no mistake, former chief magistrate Walker was no softie, and presided over multiple high-profile cases, including that of former federal parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper, who Ms Walker found guilty of three counts of dishonesty over the misuse of his Cabcharge allowance<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was alleged he used the allowance to visit wineries in the Canberra region in 2010, costing around $900.<\/p>\n Mr Slipper was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, but his conviction was later overturned in an appeal by the ACT Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n But one of her biggest tasks, which delivered her longest-running cases, was as the chief coroner on inquiries as diverse as the 2020 Orroral Valley Fire<\/a> and the death of a Canadian helicopter pilot, David Wood<\/a>, who fell into a crevasse on the Western Ice Shelf in Antarctica.<\/p>\n ‘Sometimes you get it wrong’<\/p>\n During her tenure, the ACT courts have gone through a period of enormous change as the workload grew, and the number of magistrates increased to 10.<\/p>\n Even the building was extended to accommodate a busier Supreme Court.<\/p>\n With that, has come increasing criticism from the public domain about leniency, particularly around bail applications.<\/p>\n Lorraine Walker is the first to admit it is a difficult task.<\/p>\n “We get it wrong sometimes. That’s the reality,” she said.<\/p>\n “It’s a risk assessment that you carry out with limited information, with some considerations that must be taken into account and usually over a very short time frame.<\/p>\n “Sometimes you get it wrong, and sometimes that is a source of regret.”<\/p>\n She conceded high-profile cases where there was tragic reoffending were damaging, but said the integrity of the system would only be maintained if judicial officers had a wide discretion.<\/p>\n “It’s really important that the courts be allowed to perform their role, [and laws] not be simply a response to concerns of the public who may not fully appreciate what the function of bail is, what the considerations for bail are,” former chief magistrate Walker said.<\/p>\n Lorraine Walker retired from the role of ACT chief magistrate in March. (ABC News: Tobias Hunt)<\/p>\n Challenging to divert young people from justice system<\/p>\n If there is one area that frustrated Lorraine Walker most, it was the ACT Children’s Court.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/64e2682b44ece804f35d468308a9e5f9.jpeg\")
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