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A Sydney magistrate has dismissed claims of "gender bias" by federal senator David Leyonhjelm over a fine for an unregistered backyard pool and ordered him to pay $4300. The Liberal Democrat was fined $220 by his local council in June 2018 for failing to put the swimming pool in his Drummoyne home on a NSW government register. But he took the matter to court, arguing that being on the pool register invaded his privacy, that he should be free from government intrusion and that the council exercised gender bias by not also fining the pool's co-owner - his wife, Amanda Downes. In a written submission, the 66-year-old also tried to convince magistrate Eve Wynhausen that the City of Canada Bay had a duty to register the pool themselves because they'd acknowledged it existed in a compliance report issued in 2005. But in Burwood Local Court on Thursday, the magistrate ruled those defences didn't hold water and ordered he pay a $1800 fine and most of the council's legal fees. Senator Leyonhjelm wasn't in court to hear the decision and had no representative. "He is not here to put anything to the court, that the court could consider to significantly reduce the fine one way or another," the magistrate said. "By defending the matter, he hasn't demonstrated contrition." Ms Wynhausen said the senator's arguments about privacy were "simply not relevant" and that the law passed in 2012 was designed "to strike the right balance between pool owner responsibility and government regulation". Further, the magistrate said, his claims that the council's female compliance officer executed gender bias weren't supported by the evidence before the court. "The fact the council issued the fine to (Senator) Leyonhjelm does not alter or invalidate the prosecution against him," she said. Court documents showed the council sent three letters to the senator and his wife between 2015 and 2017 threatening a $220 fine if the pool wasn't registered. Australian Associated Press

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