Come home Rupert Murdoch, Dick Smith says

Entrepreneur Dick Smith has made an extraordinary call for media mogul Rupert Murdoch to return to Australia to help guide the country through the "confusing age" of climate change.

Mr Smith, a businessman and aviator who founded the Dick Smith Electronics stores, also accused the editors of Mr Murdoch's local publications of "losing the plot" with "endless attacks" on supporters of a carbon emissions tax.

Speaking at the launch yesterday of his new book on population, Mr Smith said the US-based Mr Murdoch was needed to provide leadership on the issue.

"Rupert, we need you back here in Australia," he told a media-dominated crowd at Dymock's bookstore in Sydney.

"Come back and take the reins - your editors are losing the plot and need to be reminded that you accept we must transform the way we use energy and that we need to act now.

"Perhaps it's time for you to take up Australian citizenship again ... and help guide us wisely through this difficult and confusing age."

Mr Smith, who is no longer connected to the electronics chain that bears his name, made a startling plea for Mr Murdoch to become Australia's Lord Beaverbrook and devote himself to tackling climate change.

Max Aitken, the first Lord Beaverbrook, was the Canadian-born newspaper magnate who entered British politics, became a government minister and devoted himself to winning World War II.

"I ask you to come home to become the Lord Beaverbrook of the 21st century," Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith claimed he was too "gutless" to join actor Cate Blanchett in a television advertising campaign backing the planned federal government tax, saying he feared the reaction of Mr Murdoch's News Ltd press.

"I didn't appear on it because I knew that I would be a front page of lies in the Rupert Murdoch press here," he said.

"So there was no way I would destroy my name that way. I was gutless. I didn't stand up for the truth."

Blanchett has been criticised for her involvement in the ads, with some pointing out she can afford to support the tax because she is wealthy.

The ads are part of a campaign, backed by organisations such as Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and the Climate Institute, calling on the public to "Say Yes" to a carbon tax.

The actor's picture was splashed on the front page of The Sunday Telegraph, which is owned by News Ltd, with the headline 'Carbon Cate - A$53 million ($70 million) Hollywood superstar Tells Aussie Families To Pay Up'.

Mr Smith said he didn't regret not appearing in the ad.

"They would have done the same to me as they would to Cate Blanchett - because I'm wealthy they would say I shouldn't talk," he said.

Asked if he thought that Blanchett was stupid for taking part in the campaign, he said she was an "iconic Australian" who said the right thing for the next generation.

"If prominent people aren't going to speak up, we'll never make any change," he said.

Mr Smith's book, Dick Smith's Population Crisis, was launched by child celebrity Bindi Irwin.

Comment was being sought from Mr Murdoch's representatives.

- AAP