Dick Smith to Waleed Aly: ‘You don’t understand basic economics’

DICK Smith didn’t hold back on The Project last night, lashing host Waleed Aly for putting forward “absolute rubbish”.

MULTI-millionaire Dick Smith fired up at Waleed Aly during an interview on The Project last night, saying the host doesn’t “understand basic economics” and accusing him of putting forward “absolute rubbish”.

The former Australian of the Year appeared on the program after publicly throwing his support behind One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, saying he is aligned with her tough immigration stance and other policy positions.

Mr Smith has offered to advise Ms Hanson as she seeks to expand One Nation’s support into key state and federal seats.

Dick Smith and Pauline Hanson. (Pic: News Corp Australia/AAP)

While Mr Smith clarified that he doesn’t support Ms Hanson’s stance on Muslims, he used his interview on The Project to declare Australia’s population growth should be limited. Mr Aly responded by pointing out that the nation’s population is ageing, with an increasingly high proportion of retirees being supported by a lower proportion of young workers.

“You can come up with an immigration program that means a whole lot of young people would have to work with taxes at huge levels to support the retiring,” Mr Aly said.

“Otherwise you would have to level with us now and tell us how much tax you want young working people to pay so that the ageing population can have a retirement?”

Waleed Aly and Dick Smith. Pic: Channel 10

Mr Smith shot back at the host with venom, telling Mr Aly he didn’t have a “basic understanding of economics”.

“Yeah, that’s absolute rubbish. You don’t understand basic economics, and all I can say is it’s going to get worse and worse,” he said.

“Peter Costello said that we’ve got to have three per cent growth. That doubles everything every 25 years. It gets to the most incredible figures. A billion people in the time of 200 years of modern Australia. That would be ridiculous.

“I’m happy as a wealthy person to pay more taxes, to pay my tax now so we don’t have to have a Ponzi scheme because it will affect young people.”

Dick Smith wasn’t holding back.

Earlier in the day, Mr Smith revealed he was drawn to work with Ms Hanson because of her policy on Australia’s population, which he said is “very important”. He said he would “give her some suggestions” and help secure “tens of thousands of votes”, but ruled out supporting One Nation financially and said he would not join the party.

“I just have the plan to tell people that her population policy is right, otherwise we will destroy Australia,” he said during an interview with Studio 10.

“What I’m saying is, why don’t one of the major parties take on her population policy because that would be sensible.”

The pair had an initial conversation last week, where Ms Hanson said Mr Smith “realised we agree on many things”.

“I support her policy on Julian Assange. I support her immigration policy. She says that she’s going to have a policy to help general aviation. I’ll certainly support that,” Mr Smith told the Daily Telegraph.

“I agree with her views on immigration numbers, that is about 70,000 a year, not 200,000. But I do not agree with her views on Muslim immigration.”

Mr Smith said he believes a tough immigration stance like Ms Hanson’s could help young people afford houses.

He said he believes voters are “so disillusioned with our present party politics”, and that One Nation candidates would win seats, particularly in Western Sydney, at the next state election. One Nation is planning a major campaign there, with similar plans in Queensland.

But the party has its problems as well. In a scathing radio interview yesterday morning, Ms Hanson declared she “cannot work with” One Nation senator Rod Culleton, and essentially announced the WA senator he had split from the party.

“He’s not a team player at all,” Ms Hanson told 2GB radio host Ray Hadley. “He loves the limelight, he loves the publicity and he’s not really listening to the advice.”

Her comments came after Mr Culleton voted against his own party’s position in the Senate a handful of times.

Despite the party’s fractured state, the One Nation leader has predicted a Trump-like wave of support for the conservative alternative across the nation.

“I think there’s a move on across the country for One Nation,” Ms Hanson told the Telegraph.

Pauline Hanson. Pic: Gary Ramage

The controversial senator took to Facebook yesterday to thank Mr Smith for his support.

“Like many other Australians, when Dick Smith took the time to listen to what I had to say and look at my actual policies he realised we agreed on many things,” she said. “I look forward to working with him more in the future.”

In lending his support, Mr Smith acknowledged there was controversy around Ms Hanson’s views on Muslim immigration and her past comments about indigenous Australians.

“People tend to say that she’s racist. So I asked her, does she think that she’s superior to other races? She said no,” he said.

Originally published as Dick Smith to Waleed Aly: ‘You don’t understand basic economics’