Advertisement

The Project's Waleed Aly brutally shut down by guest: 'That's why you're a TV personality'

The Project's Waleed Aly shared on Tuesday night's show that he supports Prime Minister Scott Morrison's plan to allow first home buyers to use their superannuation to buy a house as a last-ditch effort to win Saturday's election.

Speaking with economics journalist Shane Wright about the controversial policy, which would allow Aussies to use up to $50,000 from their super, Waleed said it sounded like a good use of the money.

The Project's Waleed Aly
The Project's Waleed Aly was brutally shut down by a guest while speaking about Scott Morrison's new first homebuyer policy. Photo: Ten

Waleed said he would prefer to have his money invested in the property market rather than in his super.

"Ten years ago... I’d much rather have had my money in housing than on the stock market," he said.

However, Shane quickly shut him down, saying, "That's why you're a TV personality and not in the property market."

Waleed's co-host Steve Price then agreed, adding, "That’s why you’re not an economist or real estate agent."

RELATED

The jab came after Waleed said, "One thing that is interesting about this policy is that if you were to take your money out to spend on a house and you sell that house, you have to put the money back with the relevant proportion of capital gains.

"So once you think about it that way, couldn’t you look at this as just another investment, instead of putting money aside for superannuation that gets invested in the share market, it’s being invested in the property market.

"And so it’s the same as shares except it has the benefit that you could live in your investment but you are not throwing your money away, you’re not losing the investment."

Journalist Steve Wright on The Project
Journalist Steve Wright was quick to shut Waleed down over why he was wrong about the policy. Photo: Ten

He added that the property market was likely more reliable than the stock market, however he was corrected by Shane who explained, "If you’re in superannuation with growth fund, you have made 9.5 per cent over the last 10 years. You have outperformed the property market by about $200,000."

"People think that house prices never go down. We are actually experiencing that right now."

Shane added that Australia is the second most indebted nation in the world, so we shouldn't try to make it worse.

Viewers thought it was hilarious watching Waleed get shut down with one user writing on Twitter, "The beauty of live TV!"

"Oh geez Wally didn’t like that much," another added.

Others called out the policy with one writing, "It’s a smoke and mirrors 'policy'."

"Cash splashes are a common campaign strategy, but now these guys are trying to win people over with their own money," another wrote. "But people in desperate need to pay bills, fix their cars, clothe their kids etc can't get easy access to Super!!"

"The idea sounds very silver spoon and a government on life support," a third said.

Never miss a thing. Sign up to Yahoo Lifestyle’s daily newsletter.

Or if you have a story idea, email us at lifestyle.tips@yahooinc.com.