Today in Parliament, Abigail gave notice of a motion calling out Woolworths who have quietly restocked deadly SGAR rodent poisons just weeks after publicly committing to remove them, betraying native wildlife, breaking its public promise and leaving Coles as the only major supermarket to have kept its word.
Abigail said:
I give notice that on the next sitting day I will move:
(1) That this House notes that:
- supermarket giant Woolworths has quietly restocked and discounted products containing deadly rodent poisons known as second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs), after having previously withdrawn these products from sale just weeks ago in April 2026;
- both Coles and Woolworths publicly confirmed in April that they had removed all products containing SGARs from stores nationwide, following a swell of public pressure calling on major retailers to stop selling deadly SGAR poisons due to the immense harm they are causing to native wildlife;
- unlike Woolworths, Coles has maintained its position and has kept its shelves empty of deadly SGAR products, leaving notes warning staff not to restock them;
- in March 2026, the federal poisons regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), proposed a nationwide ban on SGARs by March 2027, however the Federal Government has not yet formally adopted this ban or put in place a comprehensive timeline to phase these products out;
- in the days and weeks after the APVMA’s announcement, Woolworths, Coles and Bunnings all made public commitments to cease selling SGARs by July 2026, nine months ahead of the proposed APVMA ban; and
- public outrage over the devastating harm that SGARs are having on ecosystems and biodiversity across our state is growing stronger each day, with more people calling on governments, retailers and decision-makers to take urgent action to protect native wildlife from harm.
(2) That this House:
- calls on concerned communities to boycott Woolworths as a means of pressuring the supermarket giant to reverse its decision to put harmful SGAR poisons back on its shelves and immediately remove them from sale entirely;
- urges the public to maintain pressure on all major retailers, including those who have already made public commitments to stop selling SGAR products, to urgently remove all products that contain deadly SGAR poisons from shelves;
- calls on the NSW government to lobby the Australian Government to immediately bring all anticoagulant rodenticides onto the restricted chemical products list including SGARs, so that these harmful poisons are no longer able to be sold in retail stores; and
- calls on the NSW government to amend the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 to include SGARs in the list of key threatening processes, so that the significant environmental and biodiversity impact of these poisons is properly recognised and mitigated.
28 May 2026