They Don’t Want to Say ‘Australia Day’

They claim to be representative of all Australians, but Woolworths have done away with Australia Day dumping all Australia Day merchandise, and now they’ve made a commitment to flying the Aboriginal flag outside stores “where practicable”, whatever that means. But recent news suggests that they’ve backflipped on this plan, or perhaps clarified their position. In a statement, a spokesperson said, “We don’t plan to add flags outside our supermarkets. The specific statement refers to displaying the flags ‘where practicable’. The locations deemed practicable are those where the Australian flag is already flown.” Whatever, I’m done with Woolworths. Instead of bringing harmony to society by taking a neutral position on divisive issues, they instead continue to try to divide their customer base based on their political beliefs or ancestry.

Coles made an announcement that they would continue to stock “a small range of Australian-themed summer entertaining merchandise”. I downloaded their latest catalogue just to see what they mean by “a small range”. This is their catalogue dated 17-23 January 2024. First thing I noticed, they have this ‘Australian Grown’ flag plastered throughout the catalogue. Rock lobster. King prawns. Leg of lamb. They even have a picture of an Aussie farmer – Australian Grown. Another leg of lamb. Beef burgers. Beef steak – All proudly flying the Australian grown flag. This entire page is covered with the Australian Grown flag.

This page is titled “Summer” and has some Aussie Aussie mugs, paper plates, napkins, bunting, and so on, a G’day Mate can cooler, and some cups with “I love… something”. The something is strategically hidden from view. Aussie Grown tomatoes, strawberries, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes. There’s Australian flags everywhere! But did you notice one thing they didn’t mention? Australia Day! There is not one mention of Australia Day. They’re happy to show heaps of flags and sell Aussie cups and so on, but they don’t want to say the words “Australia Day”. You know, that might cause offence.

On the other hand, they have two pages dedicated to the Lunar New Year, a traditionally Asian celebration. It’s funny, they’re not scared to use those words “Lunar New Year”, which is the correct name of the celebration, but Australia Day, nope! Not one mention of it. The Australia Day page is instead labelled “Summer”.

So although Coles have kind of supported Australia Day, they also kind of haven’t.

Drakes Supermarkets, on the other hand, are proudly including Australia Day in their latest catalogue, also dated 17-23 January. “Ingredients for Australia Day”, with Aussie flags for sale, and so on. “Celebrate Australia Day with your wingman!” I know, it’s all just marketing gimmicks, but so what? They’re having some fun with it. Is anybody calling for a boycott of Drakes because they dared to mention Australia Day? Of course not. It’s only the companies that are abandoning Australia Day that are being rightfully criticised.

That’s what I don’t get about Woolworths and others. What are they trying to do? What’s their end goal? Why are they so set on removing Australia Day from their stores? Even if a small percentage of Australians hate Australia Day, so what? That’s not a reason not to include it. A small percentage, or perhaps a large percentage of people don’t like Halloween, yet they’re happy to include all that tat in their catalogues. But yet, they continue to play this divisive game of going against the majority of their customer base to appease a small minority. After careful thought, there’s only one word I can use to describe the leadership at Woolworths. Idiots!

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn