A MINOR party hoping to become a major force in NSW has gained crucial backing from businessman Dick Smith.

The Sustainable Australia Party is looking to dive into politics in the northern beaches, preparing to register for the 2019 state election.

Its launch video, filmed in Manly, persuaded Mr Smith, 73, of Terrey Hills, to join a political party for the first time, citing its promise to decrease immigration to 70,000 people a year.

“They have a population plan and I am very concerned for our grandchildren that if we don’t have a population plan there is going to be a tremendous amount of people out of work,” Mr Smith said.

media_camera Businessman Dick Smith has joined Sustainable Australia. Picture: Julian Andrews.

“We’ll be like the US, which has about 70 million working poor on $7.10 per hour.”

Sustainable Australia founder and president William Bourke said the party — already federally registered — was about 200 members short of the 750 needed to register for the 2019 state ­election.

“Our slogan is Better Not Bigger. That’s both a national and a local approach,” he said.

“Issues we are campaigning on include better planning to save our cities, suburbs and towns from overdevelopment.

Mr Bourke said the party would fight to restore power to communities.

“We are saying that we shouldn’t have an unelected Greater Sydney Commission dictating development to areas like the northern beaches, that local councils should retain the power for those big planning decisions and local communities should have that real involvement,” he said.

Australia takes in about 200,000 immigrants a year, which Mr Bourke says is too many.

media_camera Sustainable Australia's president William Bourke with the party mobile office at Manly Beach. Picture: Adam Yip.

“We believe that population is the everything issue,” he said. “It really has been left out though of a lot of debates, whether you are talking about housing affordability, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental issues, or whether you are talking about the current national energy debate.”

Mr Bourke said the party was confident it could gain a seat in the upper house but would also contest every state seat on the peninsula.

“A lot of people have approached us about running for Manly,” he said.

They will also run for Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah in the next federal election. Mr Smith has ruled out running for a seat under the party’s banner but said it could cause upsets.

He said he hoped that one major party would come up with a population plan ahead of the next federal election, which will happen either late 2018 or early 2019.

media_camera Sustainable Australia has highlighted immigration levels as a source of rising housing prices.

Mr Smith said he hoped that one major party would come up with a population plan ahead of the next federal election — which will occur either late 2018 or early 2019.

“I have hoped either Labor or Liberal will introduce a population plan,” he said.

“They are a group trying to get going, I thought it was important to give them that support I think they need that support.

“I think eight out of 10 people agree with the need for a population plan, but for some strange reason the major parties don’t have a plan and the Greens don’t have a plan, that seems irresponsible.”