Tampon Tax Protest

France Stop Taxing Woman On Tampons, Pushing Australia’s ‘Tampon Tax’ Back On The A-Gender

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The good people of France have come to their senses, yesterday announcing that they’ll be abolishing a totally unfair tax on essential woman’s sanitary items such as tampons.

The move has re-sparked the debate in Australia where farcical tax classifications deem women’s pads, tampons and sanitary items not essential and therefore subject to a price increase thanks to your mate, GST. You see, the Government view these basic sanitary products as a ‘luxury item’ (or a ‘nice to have’), rather than a necessity such as bread, eggs, milk, oh – and condoms. Yes, condoms make the cut. As local campaigners put it:

“Taxing Australians for getting their period isn’t just sexist, it’s fundamentally unfair.”

The debate has been sparked many times, with most Australian women frustrated and outraged when they first discover this factoid; because all Australian women need sanitary products a minimum of once a month, from anywhere between two to nine days. Meanwhile, some male politicians might be really struggling to find some use for that dusty pack of condoms stashed under their bed.

In May of 2015, a petition gained over 100,000 signatures asking for then treasurer Joe Hockey to remove the tax. In the same month, Tony Abbott refused to back down on reducing the accessibility of women’s essential hygiene products and so prices haven’t reduced. Later, in August of this year, the New South Wales treasurer, Gladys Berejiklian, announced that she won’t support the removal of the tax:

“Whilst I’m sympathetic to the sentiment, I don’t support it. We can’t tinker with the GST with one-offs. We need to address these issues holistically.”

They issue has recently cooled down a little, but yesterday’s announcement from France has thrust the debate back into the spotlight in Australia.

Australian women aren’t the only ones suffering by having their necessities taxed, earlier this year two women in London endured their periods outside Britain’s parliament without using tampons or pads in order to highlight the need for these items and to show that having one’s period is not a luxurious occurrence.

Considering Malcolm Turnball and Scott Morrison have released their outlook for the Australian Federal budget for the next year, it looks like this debate is far from over.