GetUp!: Woolworths outplayed on poker machines

Woolworths was today unsuccessful in denying GetUp members and Woolworths shareholders the right to an EGM about poker machine reform. They did however manage to buy some extra time before that meeting; it will now happen in November.

Woolworths sought the court's permission to deny the Extraordinary General Meeting GetUp members requisitioned to discuss pokies reform. During the course of the hearing, it became clear that application would be unsuccessful, and Woolworths withdrew it.

Woolworths will now be the only top company in Australian history to be forced into holding an EGM on a social justice issue.

We know this separate, 'extraordinary' meeting is important because of our experience at last year's regular Woolworths Annual General Meeting. Woolworths shareholders and GetUp members -- including some who had lost loved ones to gambling addiction -- attended the AGM and challenged the board on their dangerous high-loss poker machines, but the company did everything they could to minimise the issue.

This meeting will be very different. Woolworths will have to contact all 432,000 of their shareholders with a 1,000 word letter from GetUp members, making the ethical and business cases for limiting the company's poker machines to $1 bets. All shareholders will then be able to vote on a motion to change the company's constitution to enforce such a change.