Gabrielle Chan, political correspondent

theguardian.com, Tuesday 3 September 2013

Liberal candidate for marginal western Sydney seat of Lindsay says policy is a 'hot topic' because of traffic congestion

Liberal candidate for Lindsay, Fiona Scott, said asylum seeker policy was a 'hot topic' in western Sydney because the traffic was crowded. Photograph: AAP/Alan Porritt

Scott Morrison, the shadow immigration minister, defended Liberal candidate Fiona Scott on Tuesday over her claim that asylum seeker policy was a "hot topic" in her electorate because the traffic was crowded.

Morrison said the arrival of 50,000 asylum seekers in Australia over the last five years was putting stress on settlement services and creating population pressures in places like western Sydney, where Scott's electorate of Lindsay is located.

"We've had 50,000 people turn up over the last five years," he said. "In addition to that we have 20,000 people who have been released into the community under the government's policies and they have principally been released into south-western Sydney and in Dandenong area in Melbourne and other places.

"The population pressures on western Sydney and in places in Melbourne I think put real constraints on the cost of living and put real constraints on the cost of infrastructure that people can access and the services they can provide. I think Fiona has always been a passionate advocate for those things."

On the ABC's Four Corners on Monday night, Scott blamed traffic problems and hospital queues on asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

"My recommendation is go and sit in the emergency department of Nepean Hospital or go and sit on the M4 and see 50,000 people come in by boat. That's more than twice the population of Glenmore Park," the Liberal candidate said.

Morrison's comments came as he took part in an immigration debate with his government counterpart Tony Burke at the National Press Club on Tuesday. Both men were asked about their regrets in refugee policy over the past few years.

Burke said the Labor government should have changed policies in 2009 to respond to new waves of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan and sought greater bipartisanship on the "Malaysian solution".

The immigration minister said his deepest regret regarding refugee policy was that Labor did not change its policies in 2009, after the Labor government dismantled the former Liberal government's offshore processing policies on coming to office in 2007.

"In 2009 we had changes in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan and at that point there was a new pipeline of people smuggling," Burke said. "We needed to change our policies immediately. We didn't and I believe we should have and I deeply regret the consequences that we didn't."

Burke also said the failure to achieve bipartisan support for the 2011 Malaysian solution, negotiated under Julia Gillard's leadership with the then minister Chris Bowen, was also a regret.

Under the policy, Malaysia agreed to take 800 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat in return for 4,000 assessed as genuine refugees from Malaysia over four years.

However, the high court ruled the proposal contravened the Migration Act because despite assurances from the Malaysian government the asylum seekers who were to be sent to Malaysia would have had no legal protection from further prosecution.

The ruling meant the government was forced to try to gain approval through the parliament. The legislation failed because it was blocked by the opposition and the Greens.

Burke said no one in the government or the opposition expected the high court's ruling and he said the government should have moved to garner support for the legislation as "it takes a government to start bipartisanship.

"Had we known it would end up in a parliamentary process, I wish we had done something to make sure that legislation had gone through smoothly," he said.

"Deep regrets and deep consequences ... I was a cabinet minister all the way through; I take the decision very personally and that is also why I have been so determined to maintain my resolve."

Morrison said his only regret was that he did not push the government to "get moving" on refugee policy earlier.

Scott was the candidate whom Toby Abbott controversially described as having "sex appeal".

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