Woolworths Australia Day stance reversed as January 26 looms [Video]

Woolworths will celebrate Australia Day in store by selling Australian-made flags and a selection of items “perfect” for the public holiday in a reversal of its controversial decision last year that prompted calls from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to boycott the supermarket giant.

Woolworths said it had listened to community feedback and “recognised” its customers and employees wanted the supermarket chain to celebrate January 26, which is seen as “Invasion Day” by many Australians because it marks the day the British began to colonise the lands inhabited by Australia’s Indigenous people.

Australia Day and whether it is appropriate to celebrate it on January 26, the day the First Fleet landed and planted the British flag in present-day Sydney in 1788, has become an increasingly divisive issue in recent years. Many Indigenous Australians view that day as a …