OPINION
Explaining, as The BFD’s Cam likes to say, is losing. The CEO of Australian supermarket titan Woolworths, known across the ditch as Countdown, has been doing an awful lot of explaining since the announcement that it would no longer stock Australia Day merchandise – and losing all the way.
When Brad Banducci claimed that the decision was solely commercial – due to declining sales, he claimed – few bought the excuse for a second. Especially not when it was suffixed with a sotto voce admission that the decision was, in fact, political. “Changing community attitudes,” he said.
Now comes the revelation that Woolworths has an “Indigenous board”, which was key to the anti-Australia Day stance.
Woolworths consulted its Indigenous advisory board before ending its annual practice of stocking Australia-themed items such as bucket hats, balloons and thongs ahead of Australia Day.
Which begs the question, of course, as to why Woolworths even has an “Indigenous board”.
Why, exactly, do less than three per cent of the population (a figure which is itself grossly inflated by the ‘box-tickers’ who claim a spurious Aboriginal heritage in order to glom on to the “Indigenous” gravy train) merit their own, no doubt highly paid, board on one of the nation’s largest corporations?
It’s certainly unclear what value the board has actually delivered for Woolworths.
During the debate over an Indigenous voice to parliament last year, Woolworths was prompted to pull public address announcements about the Uluru Statement from the Heart from its Big W stores. It said it did this because of feedback from customers and staff.
The Australian
But, in a hole of its own making, Woolworths is still determinedly digging. Public anger over the anti-Australia Day decision was only compounded when Woolies barreled on ahead with merchandising for the Chinese New Year, which is on top of its promotion of Eid-al-Fitr and Diwali.
Even Woolies’ staff are pissed off.
In leaked messages posted to a private online forum managed by Woolworths, obtained by the Daily Mail, several staff members hit out at the company refusing to sell Australia Day merchandise while promoting cultural celebrations like Chinese New Year and Diwali.
“Unbelievable that Australia Day was cancelled but we will celebrate Halloween and Chinese New Year just to name a couple,” one person wrote in the forum.
“ … Can you imagine a Chinese supermarket chain cancelling Chinese New Year but celebrating Australia Day?” they continued.
“Australian CEOs need to stop playing politics/activism and get on with running the business.”
A female staff member also questioned why the company supports “all other diversity ways in our lives” but has suddenly chose not to “support the community that celebrates Australia Day”.
Elsewhere, Australians decided to take matters into their own hands.
A man has been hailed as a “legend” for handing out Australian flags outside a Melbourne Woolworths following the supermarket’s controversial decision to ditch Australia Day merch.
The man, dressed in an Australian-themed shirt and Australian flag-printed hat, was spotted standing outside the Woolworths store in Officer, 50km from Melbourne’s CBD, with a trolley of handheld flags […]
Elsewhere around the country, an Australian flag was seen taped to a wall outside a Woolworths store in Sydney’s affluent inner-west suburb of Balmain.
News.com.au
Meanwhile, opinion polling appears to show that Australians are more in favour of Australia Day on January 26 than ever.
A special Roy Morgan opinion poll, shows a majority of Australians (68.5 per cent) now say we should keep celebrating Australia Day – up 4.5 per cent from a year ago – and the date should remain at January 26 (58.5 per cent)
The Australian
Australians are not generally inclined to American-style, flag-waving patriotism. But they are even less inclined to be lectured at from on high by woke corporate elites, politicians, and the smug, inner-city, laptop class. So, this year especially, there has been a noticeable uptick in public flag-flying on Australia Day. Not to mention something I’ve never encountered before: complete strangers cheerily wishing people a “Happy Australia Day”.
Being finger-wagged by the elites has only served to spur Australians into celebrating their national day even more.