‘Wildly arrogant’: Project hosts clash

Last week, The Project showed a segment interviewing some Gen Z people to understand the issues that matter to them coming into the federal election. Something that Steve Price, a Baby Boomer, apparently took great issue with.He then followed up with a newspaper column in the Herald Sun, doubling down on his views that pointing out the very real issues faced by young people in Australia makes them “whingers” who are showing “how little they know about hardship”.Which is why Waleed Aly kicked off the introductions on last night’s show with “Stephen Price is here to make Millennials cry”.“Thanks for that little slap Waleed,” replied Price.“We had a very spirited discussion last week, Chrissie and I … I did give the Millennials a bit of a slap and followed it up with a newspaper column,” he continued.“I called them lousy whingers who all need to get over themselves. That’s all“.“What I loved the most is you didn’t listen to anyone,” Chrissie Swan told Price, referring to their debate last week.“The idea that Millennials would be upset because they read your newspaper column is wildly arrogant,” Tommy Little added.Last week, Price sparked a debate after claiming that six Gen Z (and yes, they were Gen Z, even though he now appears to now be attributing everything to Millennials) were an “entitled bunch”.“They’ve got to realise they’re … a very lucky generation,” Price said on Monday night after a segment about what young people think of the upcoming election.“They’ve grown up in a country that’s safe, that’s prosperous, they’ve got a pretty good chance of getting a job because they’ve had a free university education.”The rest of the panel called him out for making this about himself, when the young people were simply voices very real concerns — like climate change and housing affordability.“On a planet that’s being torched and they won’t own their own home?” replied Peter Helliar.“Who’s had a free university education,” asked Chrisie Swan.“Well, they’ve got a HECS debt,” retorted Price.“That’s not free,” said Swan. “Yours was free.”“I think what you took out of it, I didn’t get that vibe,” said Helliar. “I think they were being very open-minded and pretty fair … I think you’re being a little defensive.”Price then went on to say that he worked very hard — “50 years without having a day off”, apparently.“You did have it a lot easier than this generation,” pointed out Hamish McDonald. “It was a lot cheaper to buy a house, you got free university education”.“I had to work hard every day of my life since I was 17,” said Price, well and truly missing the entire point.“So are they,” Swan pointed out, “and they feel like they don’t have the choices”.