The Project host Waleed Aly has sparked a social media storm after labelling people who work in administration jobs as "bogans".

The Project host Waleed Aly has sparked a social media storm after labelling people who work in administration jobs as "bogans".

The 38-year-old and his co-panellists Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar and Gretel Killeen were talking about a Perth small business' job ad on Gumtree which asked for "no bogans or rough people" to apply.

"If you're not taking bogans, where are you going to get good admin people?" Waleed asked the panel. "Where are they going to get them from?"

Carrie agreed and said he had a "good point", but members of the studio audience could be heard saying "ooooh" to his remarks.

Peter Helliar responded: "There's maybe a few people in the crowd who aren't happy with that, Waleed."

You could say that again. Twitter erupted with angry viewers who felt he went too far.

"Ummm did Waleed just say that? I work in admin and I am the antithesis of a Bogan. Get off your high horse," tweeted a user named Dom.

"Rude, Waleed @theprojecttv. I've two degrees, including one in Latin and Ancient Greek & all I'm looking for is an admin position. #nobogan," tweeted Donna Taylor.

"Waleed Aly called administrative staff bogans. Yep, you've returned yourself to the town of D---head in one piece," wrote 99.Boris.

Later in the show, Carrie gave Waleed the opportunity to apologise for his comments after hearing of the backlash from some online.

"Do you want to say anything to the bogans of Australia, Waleed?" she asked, to which he joked:

"No, not really."

Peter pointed out that he really needs to apologise to admin workers, not "bogans" as such.

"Should I clarify? In my head I was actually making the opposite point to what came out," Waleed tried to explain. "Which is the idea that admin people and bogans are the same thing is completely ridiculous, but it came out the wrong way around."

He concluded by declaring himself a "bogan".