Ms Scott also suggested asylum seekers were exacerbating hospital waiting queues. Fiona Scott suggested asylum seekers were making traffic worse and also exacerbating traffic queues. Credit:Screen grab, 4 Corners 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. 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. Fiona Scott with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "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. "The point of the matter is if we stop the boats we have less pressure on the budget,'' Mr Abbott said.

''We have less pressure on our facilities for dealing with illegal arrivals, we have less pressure on our relationship with Indonesia. While visiting western Sydney earlier in the election campaign, Mr Abbott was asked what Ms Scott had in common with the former Coalition MP for Lindsay Jackie Kelly. ''They've young, they're feisty,'' Mr Abbott said. ''I can probably say they have a bit of sex appeal. And are just very, very connected with the local area.'' His comment resurrected debate about Mr Abbott's perceived ''woman problem'', however Ms Scott defended the Opposition Leader saying there was no need to apologise. She said his comment was ''an absolute charming compliment between friends''. Four Corners also revealed that Kevin Rudd, though critical of Mr Abbott's remark, had apparently given Fiona McNamara, candidate for Brisbane, advice on how to wear her hair.

''I don't think I've ever said anything to Fiona about the way in which she presents,'' he told the program. But this was contradicted when Ms McNamara, days earlier, had relayed a conversation with the Prime Minister. ''He likes me to have it pulled back a bit, so people can see my face,'' she said. ''There is a problem sometimes with women's hair in their face, and it's probably a bit neater.'' But Ms McNamara said she had herself initiated the conversation about her hair, over a cup of tea.

''I said, 'Oh, I'm not sure about how I should be wearing my hair.''' 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.''