Attorney-General weighs in on future of controversial magistrate Rodney Higgins

The Attorney-General has weighed in on the future of magistrate Rodney Higgins amid a death benefit controversy.

Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes has all but confirmed controversial magistrate Rodney Higgins has lost his chance at ongoing work as a magistrate.

Mr Higgins, who is expected to retire within weeks when he turns 70, had hoped to continue on the bench as a reserve magistrate for several more years.

The appointment would have earned him a minimum $1,380 a day in his retirement.

But Ms Symes told a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday no application by the magistrates court had been made for Mr Higgins to secure the lucrative reserve position.

Rodney Higgins and his late fiance Ashleigh Petrie.

And she said she didn’t expect one would be made.

The Herald Sun revealed last week that Mr Higgins’ desire to work as a reserve magistrate was under a cloud amid internal fury over his battle for his late fiance’s $180,000 death benefit.

Questions had already been cast over Mr Higgins’ suitability to sit on the bench after his engagement to 23-year-old court clerk Ashleigh Petrie was revealed in 2019.

A complaint to the Judicial Commission of Victoria was subsequently dismissed.

But sources revealed that senior judicial figures had openly discussed their anger after learning Mr Higgins was involved in a protracted legal fight against Ms Petrie’s mother, who was listed as her only beneficiary in her will.

Ashleigh Petrie and magistrate Rodney Higgins’ engagement was revealed in 2019.

They say while there was no mechanism for Mr Higgins to be sacked without the involvement of the Attorney-General, the chief magistrate could stop him working as a reserve judge.

“Reserve isn’t a guarantee. If you’re a bad appointment, it won’t happen,” one senior source said.

“While it’s not sacking you, it can take away a good five to 10 years of continued earning.”

On the base sessional rate for reserve magistrates Mr Higgins, who currently earns $324,000 a year, would have had to work two days a week for a year to earn the equivalent of the $180,000 death benefit he was awarded.

Sources close to Ms Petrie’s family say they were told by Rest Super that Mr Higgins had contacted them the day after Ms Petrie was killed after being hit by a car in October 2019.

The 23-year-old clerk from Mirboo North had announced her engagement to Mr Higgins only weeks earlier.

A coronial inquest ruled Ms Petrie’s death a suicide.

The investigating coroner determined that the finding would not be published.

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