Bonus pond: refugees ruin Sydney traffic and wreck hospital queues ... and Abbott and Morrison sink into the swamp of prejudice ...

The pond was wondering when the MSM would catch up with Fiona Scott.

The Fairfaxians eventually caught up with Four Corners, as you can read in Liberal candidate links asylum seekers to traffic jams and hospital queues.

But why not head off to the actual site, and read the transcript here, or watch the program:

(Janine interviewing Fiona in car) 
JANINE COHEN: That's a pretty hot topic, isn't it, asylum seekers? 
 FIONA SCOTT: Well yeah, it is a hot topic, but it's a hot topic here because our traffic is overcrowded. I mean you guys have been here a few days now, and I mean how much fun is the M4 in peak hour? It's not fun at all. And you know, you imagine a mum, you know, it's a classic example, ah trying to be back for a six o'clock pick-up from day-care, and every minute you're late you're getting charged. Now you multiply that by a couple of kids, it means that when you think of overcrowding it becomes an issue for people, it really does. 
JANINE COHEN: So you mention asylum seekers and overcrowding. I don't quite get the connection. 
FIONA SCOTT: Well, my recommendation is go and sit in the Emergency Department of Nepean Hospital or go and sit on the M4 and people see 50,000 people come in by boat; that's more than twice the population of Glenmore Park where we just were.

It's a classic gotcha moment, where a bubble-headed bear with not much brain let's it all hang out in front of a camera.

The trouble is, it's a Pauline Hanson moment, a piece of classic prejudiced absurdity, linking refugees to traffic on the M4 and hospital queues, all on the basis that the boat people seem to have descended on Glenmore Park or perhaps the emergency ward at Nepean hospital.

The trouble for Abbott is that he's already gone out on a limb for Scott, what with his dumb talk about Scott as a likely future Minister for Sex Appeal. (Tony Abbott highlights Liberal candidate's 'sex appeal' during campaign event).

... Mr Abbott said later on Tuesday that he was simply being "exuberant" when reporters asked him about Ms Scott, who is running for the seat held by Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury by a margin of 1.1 per cent. 
 "She's a mate of mine, I was exuberant, she's a hard working candidate who knows the electorate inside and out and I'm really proud to be associated with her," he said.

Oh dear. Exuberant misogynist and mate of an ethnic fear monger ...

Remember all the fun the media had with hapless One Nation candidate Stephanie Bannister? Off to the dustbin of history as a 15 minutes of fame political curiosity, as you can remember in One Nation's Stephanie Banister withdraws from race after Islam comments.

Can someone please explain the difference.

Oh someone, anyone please explain.

Yes, every day is a half cup full day at the pond.

Now for more treats. How will the Murdochians deal with the future Minister for Sex Appeal?

And what will she say in her maiden speech?

If she needs any tips, she can always read up on what Pauline had to say here.

Meanwhile, and as usual, it's the comments that are the best part of the read:

So: 
1) Refugees cause traffic jams 
2) Female candidates are good because they have more sex appeal (Obviously) 
3) There is nothing wrong with body contact with a bunch of 16 year old girls. (Oh come on guys calm down Tony has watched a lot of girls playing netball) 
4) Malcolm Turnbull invented the internet and hey it's fast enough already. (At least Mal did something back then because he won't be doing much in the new Govt that's for sure). 
5) Rich women's babies are worth more than other women's babies. (Self evident really) 
6) Climate change is caused by an invisible gas so who cares. (It probably isn't even real). 
7) We have a democracy but it's simpler just to let Rupert decide the election (Of course why didn't I think of this? This could save a lot of money.) 
8) Labor's education and disability policies are pretty good so Tony borrowed them (For the time being anyway). 
9) If we buy up all the Indonesian fishing boats how are they going to send those bloody muslims at us (or fish I guess, pure genius, the fish will be happier too, who says Tony doesn't have an environment policy) 

GOV has another seven points but it's clear enough that he's enjoying the current campaign as much as the pond ...

UPDATE, just for the record:

Tony Abbott and co had a number of ways they could have responded to the clear intent of Scott's remarks, available in transcript form, so the bleeding obvious is ... well, bleeding obvious:

1. Deflected and dissembled: in the heat of battle, we all make remarks which blah blah but Fiona is a great candidate, and in due course she'll mature into a great ... blah blah.
2. Denied: in the heat of the battle, we all make remarks we wish we'd clarified, and in this case, Fiona clearly mis-spoke and blah blah ...
3. Doubled-down: in the heat of battle, sometimes we call it like it is and truth to tell, hordes of demonic refugees are over-running the country and totally fucking it up.

The first two would have been the standard political response of a politician on a hot tin roof, but Abbott chose the third, thereby identifying himself with rabid racist common gossip fear-mongering of the Hansonite kind. At the moment he could have chosen to be a responsible politician, he stirred the pot and the fear:

Asked about Ms Scott's comments linking asylum seekers to traffic congestion, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that he did not accept the reporter's "characterisation" of her remarks, but accepted that asylum seekers were putting a strain on society. "
Obviously when you've got something like 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat that's a big number," Mr Abbott said at a press conference in Adelaide on Tuesday. 
 "We have all sorts of pressures that are created.'' 
 The Opposition Leader then listed Australian towns that housed fewer people than the number of asylum seekers that had come by boat since Labor took power. (here)

In short, the damn furriners were indeed clogging the roads and clogging the hospitals.

And Scott 'speaker in tongues" double-downed with him:

Mr Morrison leapt to her defence. 
"I think what Fiona's referring to I think is a broader population impact ... [of] the population pressures on western Sydney and in places of Melbourne I think put real constraints on the cost of living," he said. 
"They put real constraints on the infrastructure that people can access and the services they can provide. I think Fiona has always been a passionate advocate for those things, and while the actual intake of refugees and asylum seekers into Australia is not as great as our general skilled migration program, the way that people are just frankly being dumped into the community by this government because the detention centres are full in a very unplanned way ... I don't think that's the way to run a program." (here)

This is inflammatory, racist, ethnic hate and fear mongering stuff of the lowest, basest kind, and the pond dares to suggest that anyone who doesn't look half-way Anglo Celtic is cruising for a bruising if they vote for this sort of ongoing abuse.

You see, there's simply no way to tell if they're not one of the people wrecking Sydney's roads and hospitals, and ruining it for the Anglo-Celts:

That was tongue in cheek. Abbott and Morrison are busy stuffing their tongues down the throats of the Hansonites ...

It's going to be a long and terrible time, the next three years, there never was any doubt, and there's even less now ...


(Below: oh dear, such sweet passion, trust the refugees to ruin it)