Anatomy of a culture war: Dutton, Woolworths and January 26

In the relative quiet of January 2023, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was able to seize the reins of the debate around that year’s coming vote on a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous advisory body in a way Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was never really able to recover from. Looking for a similar culture war topic in 2024, Dutton has attempted to shock the fading debate around Australia Day back to life.

Here’s a rundown of how that’s played out so far this year.

January 7, 2024: Sparked by the growing number of Western Australian councils opting to cease holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26, Perth city Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas criticises Albanese for an apparent “cop out” on Australia Day. Zempilas says the prime minister is unfairly leaving the decision to councils and that he should “get on” with changing the date of Australia Day if that’s his intention.

Zempilas, a media personality in Perth thanks to his many years contributing to WA’s dominant media company Seven West Media, who parlayed this planet-sized conflict of interest into a narrow political success, is likely to run for the Liberal Party in the next state election and is already rumoured as potential future party leader in the state.

January 10: After questions from Channel 7, Woolworths Group confirms its Woolworths and Big W stores would not sell Australia Day-themed merchandise this year. “There has been a gradual decline in demand for Australia Day merchandise from our stores over recent years,” reads a statement from the group. “At the same time there’s been broader discussion about 26 January and what it means to different parts of the community.” The statement further notes that customers can still order merchandise online through its shopping website MyDeal.

January 11: The Daily Telegraph runs a front page with the Headline “Woolies Goes Woke”, claiming that the “supermarket giant cancels Australia Day”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns calls the move “odd” while Nyunggai Warren Mundine (here described as an “Indigenous advocate”) calls it “disgraceful”. “If Woolworths isn’t proud of this country they can pack up and bugger off,” he is quoted as saying.

Dutton posts on Facebook that Woolworths is “peddling woke agendas” and “trying to cancel Australia Day”.

The same day he tells 2GB that for “Woolworths to start taking political positions to oppose Australia Day is against the national interest, the national spirit”. The opposition leader tells people to “boycott Woolworths” — “I would advise very strongly to take your business elsewhere and go to IGA or Coles or Aldi.”

Dutton adds a faintly conspiratorial touch, saying that the Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci (like Qantas CEO Alan Joyce before him) is “trying to please the prime minister”, reiterating that the Liberals were no longer the party of big business (completely true, if you ignore literally every actual policy they have).

He is joined in this condemnation by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who tells 3AW “I think we should be boycotting those who are prepared not to be proud of this country”. Coalition backbencher Henry Pike calls the move “yet another pathetic attempt by big corporations to impose their woke ideology on us and to cancel our national day by stealth”, and Victorian backbencher Jason Wood takes a break from stealing cute animal content to claim “big corporations are trying to appease Labor”.

January 12: Aldi confirms it will also not sell Australia Day-themed merchandise.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce tells Sky News he agrees with Dutton’s calls for a boycott:

Rather than reduce Australia Day, try reducing the prices and helping out with the cost of living. That’s what you should be focused on, not involving yourself in the Voice and our Australia Day and basically go careering into politics because you believe you’re entitled to because of the position you hold in corporate world, not in a democratically elected government.

Business groups come out in support of Woolsworths — “Businesses shouldn’t be boycotted because they make commercial decisions based on demand for products from their customers”, Business Council of Australia head Bran Black says.

Pollster and former deputy state director of the Victorian Liberal Party Tony Barry tells the Australian Financial Review that “public sentiment is currently very anti-big business, but they also believe that the Liberal Party are its allies and supporters, so we get handcuffed to them”. According to Barry, the AFR summarises, Dutton is “looking to snap the public’s ‘toxic’ association between the Coalition and big business at a time when voters were battling cost-of-living pressures”.

NCA, the News Corp Newswire does a vox pop piece collecting the public’s views on the decision. Of the seven people they speak to (a family of three and four other individuals) most complain about price gouging and the lack of support provided by Woolworths to Australian producers. Only the “all-Australian” family, who moved to Cronulla from South Africa in 2000, expressed any specific attachment to Australia Day on January 26. The piece runs under the headline “Aussie family said they will ‘think twice’ before shopping at Woolies”.

January 14: The Tele and The Courier-Mail run front-page stories on a poll that reported “more than half of Australians” believed the Albanese government has “failed to address the cost of living crisis”.

January 15: A Woolworths Metro in an inner-city suburb of Brisbane has “5 days 26 Jan Aussie Oi Oi Woolies fuck u” painted on its exterior in the early hours of the morning. A flare is allegedly set off, triggering fire alarms and forcing the evacuation of nearby apartment buildings.

January 13-17: Meanwhile, conservative politicians start paying for ads on Facebook promoting the controversy. Shadow immigration and citizenship minister Dan Tehan repeats the charge that Albanese is “getting councils to do his dirty work”.

Andrew Hastie pays for an ad that states “Australia Day is under siege by politicians, corporate elites and unelected bureaucrats”, adding that the Albanese government “is waging a war on Australia Day, along with corporate elites like Woolworths and Big W”.

Do you care what nationalistic knick-knacks Woolies decides to sell or not to sell? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.