Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, I have bad news for my community today. Woolworths have withdrawn Norco milk from over 90 of its Sydney stores. Sydney is the biggest milk market in Australia, and this is terrible news for Australia's largest owned dairy co-op. Not only that, I see from the Woolworths brand product labelling that they are now sourcing ice cream sticks from Slovenia and the Woolworths brand one-litre tub ice cream from New Zealand. Norco have just opened their ice cream factory in Lismore, post the 2022 flood, and this is a slap in the face for the dairy farmers in my region and the ice cream factory workers.

As we know, Woolworths have taken a stand on a couple of things quite loudly lately. They put millions of dollars into supporting the Voice referendum—against the majority opinion of their customers and, I assume, their staff, given the vote on the Voice. They also took a stand of not stocking Australia Day merchandise, partly because of sensitivities around the day.

I ask Woolworths to take a stand for dairy farmers in my region and the workers at the ice cream factory in Lismore. Woolworths were represented at the reopening of the ice cream factory in Lismore a few months ago. I get that Woolworths does not support Australia Day, I get that they were happy to pump money into a pro-Voice referendum— (Time expired)