Liberal Senator Alex Antic says environmental, social, and corporate governance is a “poison” to the corporate sector and big corporates like Woolworths need to “learn these lessons”.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone has asked his council to hand out thousands of Australian flags for free in Western Sydney in response to Woolworths’ decision to remove their Australia Day products.

“Frank’s my man. I love that, and I love the fact that he’s pushed back, and I love the fact that it’s going to be warmly received by the locals there,” Mr Antic told Sky News Australia host Caleb Bond.

“There’s this great myth that somehow people from different countries are offended by Australia Day – quite the opposite.

“I always remember the people that were probably most active during that period when I attend these Australia Day ceremonies are very much the new immigrants, and that’s a great thing.

“These corporates continue to surprise us. It wasn’t that long ago that the corporate sector used to take the view that we don’t want to offend our market – now they’re just flying with ESG.

“ESG is a poison on the corporate sector, and the sooner they learn these lessons, the better.”