In our first edition back for 2024, ON SALE TODAY, you’ll read about:

• IN a move that has outraged dinki-di Aussies who love waving little plastic flags made in China, two supermarket chains are refusing to sell Australia Day merchandise in the lead-up to 26 January. Grocery giant Woolworths revealed last week that it would not be selling the merchandise as there had been a decline in demand in recent years. Aldi quickly followed.

• A NSW local government councillor is calling for his council to scrap the current Acknowledgement of Country at the beginning of council meetings – and hopes other councils will follow suit. Cumberland City Council councillor Steve Christou is the latest in a growing trend of elected representatives who want to “wind back” the respectful protocol, that he said has been “severely overdone and cooked”.

In SPORT: 

• INDIGENOUS cricket’s biggest tournament will be underway this time next month with the largest contingent of teams yet at Mpwarnte- Alice Springs. The seventh edition of the National Indigenous Cricket Championships and the 31st edition of the iconic Imparja Cup will see teams from around the country and the Northern Territory play out over 10 days.

• AUSTRALIA’S unchanged line-up for the current two-Test series against the West Indies means cult hero Scott Boland must bide his time on the sidelines until at least New Zealand next month. Pat Cummins’ men made light work of Pakistan with a series clean-sweep 3-0 in which the Aussie quicks were rarely tested in December and January.