The Save the Skate campaign has made front-page news in the Australian, after SIX, along with the support of 230 shareholders, filed a members statement calling on Woolworths shareholders to vote against the re-election of Woolworths board chair, Scott Perkins, at the company’s 2026 AGM.

TLDR

• Woolworths continues to tie itself to a potential extinction by not acting on its sourcing of salmon from Macquarie Harbour, which is threatening the endangered Maugean Skate.
• This is despite two years of record-high shareholder votes. At the centre of this inaction lies the Woolworths board. Under the leadership of its chairperson, Scott Perkins, the board has disregarded shareholder and community concerns regarding the Maugean skate as well as other significant governance concerns.
• We are campaigning against the re-election of a chairperson over repeated failure to act on its complicity in potentially driving an endangered species to extinction. 

Woolworths, through its sourcing of salmon from Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, is contributing to the potential extinction of the Maugean Skate. Shareholders know this, community groups know this, scientists know this. Yet despite community pressure and two years of record breaking shareholder votes on the issue, Woolworths continues to fail to take any meaningful action to save the Skate. 

Salmon farms in Macquarie harbour are a "catastrophic" threat to the Skate as they make the Skate's home unlivable by driving down oxygen levels in the harbour. Woolworths sourcing choices could influence the fate of the Maugean Skate.

At the centre of this inaction, lies the Woolworths board. Under the leadership of its chairperson Scott Perkins, the board has shown disregard for shareholder and community concerns regarding the Maugean Skate, as well as other significant governance concerns. If the board won’t respond to, and take action on, overwhelming shareholder concerns, then we have no choice but to hold them directly responsible.

Here’s a brief breakdown of what a board's responsibilities generally look like:

1. Setting company goals and strategy, approving budgets.
2. Overseeing that the company complies with the law and is staying within its risk appetite.
3. Acting in the best interest of the company, which is traditionally interpreted as acting in the best interests of the company’s owners - it’s shareholders. (although we think they should also consider stakeholders like workers, nature, NGOs and customers, considering they can all be significantly impacted by decisions made by these boards).

Directors are accountable to shareholders and are legally and financially on the hook to act in the best interest of the company with duty and care. 

Outside of the legal field, the most important way a board is held accountable is when shareholders elect directors at their annual AGM. At Woolworths, individual directors are up for re-election every 3 years.

SIX, as part of the Save the Skate coalition, has filed shareholder resolutions at Woolworths AGMs over the last two years. These are formal items for all shareholders to consider and vote on, calling on the company to assess the impact of its Own Brand farmed seafood on endangered species and disclose this information to investors. These resolutions have specifically focused on the impact of Woolworths’ sourcing of farmed salmon from Macquarie Harbour which is pushing the Maugean skate to the brink of extinction.

In 2024, a massive 30% of shareholders voted in support of the resolutions. This was a globally high vote for a resolution on nature. This increased to 34% of shareholders in 2025, highlighting that this remained a significant concern amongst shareholders.

Despite this, the only response from the company has been the recent commitment to remove "Responsibility Sourced” labels from its own brand seafood products. 

To fail to take any meaningful action in response to concerns raised by a globally significant number of shareholders, backed by community groups and scientists, shows a disregard by the Woolworths board to take responsibility for helping push a 66 million year old species to the brink of extinction and avoid further damage to Woolworths’ reputation.  

Earlier this year, the Australian Financial Review reported on allegations from businessman Geoff Cousins that Mr. Perkins initiated communication with the chairperson of Woolworths’ largest competitor, Coles, to discuss how to deal with an environmental backlash from it’s shareholders against Tasmanian salmon.

The allegations have been the subject of a complaint to Australia’s competition regulator, the ACCC, from the Bob Brown Foundation.

Both Woolworths and Coles have admitted to discussions, but relegated them to "sideline" chats. Whatever the case, it demonstrates poor judgment from the chairperson to prioritise communicating with its largest competitor on a sensitive issue, rather than addressing it directly with the shareholders expressing concerns.

This is furthered by the fact that these allegations coincided with increased scrutiny on competition between the two supermarkets, including accusations from the ACCC of parallel pricing and fake discounts.

Woolworths has continued to ignore scientific evidence that salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour threatens the endangered Maugean Skate with extinction. 

The company continues relying on flawed certifications rather than actively reducing Macquarie Harbour salmon sourcing or implementing stronger supply chain oversight.

It has now become the world’s first retailer to receive an OECD complaint for environmental harm from our Save the Skate coalition partners at Environment Tasmania.

The acceptance of this level of reputational risk by the Woolworths board highlights a lack of effective leadership in managing the company’s environmental impacts. 

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It’s time to escalate our campaign

It is time to hold the chairperson, Scott Perkins, directly accountable for the board’s failures, by voting against his re-election at this year’s Woolworths AGM.

In his role as chairperson, Perkins has shown an indifference to these concerns, and to the responsibilities he and his board are supposed to uphold. This leaves us and investors with no choice but to escalate and call on shareholders to vote against the chairperson’s re-election. 

You can support our campaign by sharing this blog article, or by spreading the message on social media.