Dick Smith clarifies support for Hanson
Millionaire businessman Dick Smith says he won’t be financially backing Pauline Hanson or running for the One Nation party, but supports her immigration policy.
Dick Smith has long been an opponent of population growth. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily
News Corp reported today Smith was planning to meet with Hanson before Christmas to throw his weight behind her party.
But Smith talked down the extent of his support when interviewed on the Studio 10 program on Network Ten.
He said people were disillusioned with the major parties and traditional Liberal supporters in Sydney’s North Shore, where he lives, have been talking about voting for One Nation.
However his only interest in the party was its immigration policy, as well as its stance on reforming the aviation sector.
“I’m not planning to join Pauline Hanson’s party – all I’m saying is I support her population policy and I think it’s really important,” he said.
“This country has an optimal carrying capacity and we are going to end up with many Aussies not having a job.”
Smith, who rejected Hanson’s call for a ban on Muslim migration, said Australia should not go down the path of the United States and create a “working poor”.
“We will end up with an incredible number of poor people that will never have a job,” he said.
“If you want to encourage people into terrorism you have a situation where they never have a job.”
Asked whether he would financially back the party, he said: “No I won’t be. I have no plans to do anything like that.”
As for running for parliament, Smith said he was “too old” at 72.
Hanson, who plans to stand candidates in the NSW and federal elections, said she welcomed Smith taking an interest in her policies.
“It turns out we have a lot in common,” she tweeted.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said people such as Smith were entitled to their political views.
“But we are reminded constantly that the major concern Australians have is over the security of their jobs, the strength of the economy, whether their children and grandchildren will have good jobs in the future,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Meanwhile, Hanson has criticised her party colleague Rod Culleton for not being a team player.
Culleton has been publicly critical of his leader and voted on the opposite side of the chamber to party colleagues on several occasions since being elected to his West Australian seat.
He will face a High Court hearing on Wednesday over his eligibility to have run for parliament.
“We can’t work with him, we can’t reason with him,” told 2GB radio.
– AAP
