The Wire

Tomorrow the Federal Court in Sydney will play host to what could be a protracted legal battle between national advocacy group GetUp! and supermarket giant Woolworths, with poker machine restrictions in the spotlight.

A group of 251 GetUp! members with shares in Woolworths wrote to the company requesting an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), to try and impose a $1 bet limit on the company’s 12,000 machines. Only 100 members are required to hold an EGM, but Woolworths have gone to the courts, with the intention of merging it into the company’s Annual General Meeting in  November. Never before has a meeting of this type been requested of a major company in Australia before – making the debate ever-more intriguing.