Wednesday, 10 September 2025

Supermarket supply chains

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:19): (1938) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, and the action I seek is for self-regulated corporations to be held accountable for their broken promises. Last week Woolworths seemed to have backflipped on its pledge to stop selling beef linked to deforestation by the end of 2025. The commitment to sell deforestation-free beef was made in August 2024, and the policy was intended to apply to fresh beef; paper, pulp and timber; palm oil; cocoa; and soy for farmed animal feed sold across its stores. Woolworths said they take any instances of deforestation identified in their supply chain seriously, but in their latest sustainability report for 2025 they downgraded fresh beef as a low-risk commodity for deforestation after having considered it high-risk just one year earlier. This is despite beef production being the leading cause of deforestation in our country and Woolworths being the single largest retailer of beef in our country.

With Coles pressing ahead with this commitment, Woolworths’ failure to act leaves more forest and bushlands and their irreplaceable wildlife vulnerable to being bulldozed and cleared to make way for beef pasture. But Coles, you are not off the hook either. Completing the duopoly of disappointments, over the weekend Coles announced a delay to banning caged eggs due to supply disruptions from bird flu outbreaks. Australia has committed to banning battery cages in all states and territories by 2036, and after mounting public pressure over the suffering inflicted on hens Coles had initially pledged to go cage free this year. Now the current pledge has been pushed back all the way to 2030. But for hens forced to endure life in these cages this is far too long; they cannot wait a single day longer. In battery cages hens are crammed into spaces smaller than an A4 sheet of paper, unable to stretch, flap their wings or forage. Forced to stand on wire floors their entire lives, they endure chronic pain, crippling bone weakness and more fractures than in any other egg-laying system. Advocates have been pushing to ban cage eggs for decades, yet millions of hens still spend their entire lives in cramped cages while meaningful reform continues to be delayed and drag on.

So Woolworths, I have got a beef with you, but Coles, you are just as rotten, and this is exactly why self-regulation on animal welfare absolutely fails. Corporations are able to make commitments they have no obligation to honour. I urge the minister to urgently step in and hold them to account.