Liberal candidate links asylum seekers to traffic jams and hospital queues
September 3, 2013 – 11:01AM
James Robertson
Reporter
Fiona Scott suggested asylum seekers were making traffic worse and also exacerbating traffic queues. Photo: Screen grab, 4 Corners
A Liberal candidate in western Sydney has said she believes asylum seekers are contributing to outer-suburban traffic jams.
”[Asylum seekers are] a hot topic here because our traffic is overcrowded,” Fiona Scott, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Lindsay told the ABC’s Four Corners program.
Fiona Scott with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
When asked to explain her view she said: ”Go sit on the M4, people see 50,000 people come in by boat – that’s more than twice the population of [western Sydney suburb] Glenmore Park,” she said.
Ms Scott also suggested asylum seekers were exacerbating hospital waiting queues.
Ms Scott is challenging Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury in the September election. She came to prominence last month when Tony Abbott controversially described her as having ”sex appeal”.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul described Ms Scott’s comments as ”shockingly ignorant” and said there were only a few thousand refugees in the area.
On the issue of asylum seekers, Mr Rintoul said Ms Scott’s comments ”reflected the scaremongering and the xenophobic views of the Coalition”.
”She should be well informed, but she is saying absurd and ridiculous things.”
Mr Rintoul estimated that just a few thousand refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and Iran, would call suburbs in the seat of Lindsay, which includes Emu Plains and Castlereagh, as home.
”She has characterised [refugees] as creating social problems,” he says. ”Western Sydney is full of migrants who have very often experience some kind of discrimination and these negative views on asylum seekers will do no good to her campaign whatsoever.”
And of course some humour followed
you said it... 
Naturally, sexy, feisty, more than just a pretty face Fiona Scott, fell back on that oldy-but-goody furphy beloved by the Liberals, “I was quoted out of context” bald-faced lie. She said this, in the full knowledge that what she said was filmed & shown in context.
Of course, I shall not say nor infer she is a blonde of the dumb variety.
Caption under creen grab from Four Corners: “Fiona Scott suggested asylum seekers were making traffic worse and also exacerbating traffic queues.” <– assume you meant "also exacerbating hospital queues".
We copied the caption verbatim from the original news story. When we mirror a story as distinct from just linking or re-blogging we try and write the code so it corresponds as much as possible with the look and feel of the original.
The caption? Their omission not ours.
Dear Lord I am glad I live in the country outback where the only boat people we see are the hard working blokes and women doing jobs these lazy fucks don’t want to do because we are more than 10 miles from the nearest Centrelink or TAB.
i’m not one to comment on a persons appearance…. but GOD DAMN she’s spose to have “sex appeal” ok yeah if she was sitting at the top of the ugly tree then fell down hittin every branch on her way down then getting hit by the ugly stick when she hit the floor face first…. then yeah shes got sex appeal…
but i do agree tht the m4 is atrocious… but thts coz it was poorly designed… not coz of the refugees….
The M4 is a state government responsibility. Of course it has problems – it was never meant to grind to a sudden halt at Concord.
The original proposal would have meant the destruction of a large swathe of heritage properties. Now they are looking at tunnelling across to join it up with the Western Distributor.
No one of course wants to mention the words Better Public Transport, especially not Fiona because that would put her Liberal mates in the NSW Government under scrutiny.
Curse those refugees driving their boats down the M4 on their way to their local hospital / dole queue. The only thing that could make the M4 even more congested is a policy to buy leaky Indonesian boats. Oh wait…