After years of campaigning, Australia is one major step closer to finally abolishing the 10 per cent Tampon Tax.
Today all states and territories agreed to make sanitary products exempt from the GST when treasures met this morning to discuss the matter.
Discussion first erupted when the GST was introduced in 2000 and sanitary products were made subject to GST when other items like condoms and Viagra were left exempt.
The products to be made exempt are expected to include tampons, pads, menstrual cups, maternity pads and leak-proof underwear, but the full list will be subject to public consultation. The tax is expected to be removed from these products by January 1 2019.
Speaking with Sky News, Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer said she was "delighted" the state and territory treasurers had agreed on "the right outcome”:
"Well it's had a fairly tortured history … [then-treasurer] Joe Hockey, as the first Commonwealth minister to actually raise this issue, put it on the agenda for COAG and didn't get a lot of support from the states and territories at that time … but we said we wanted to have another crack at it.
"Millions of women right across the nation will be very thankful for it."
Since August, Bauer’s 36 magazine brands have been running a “No Gender Selective Tax” campaign in support of removing the GST on tampons. This has involved editorial and advertising content across all major brands as well as an influencer campaign across social media. Consumers were asked to sign a petition at bloodyannoying.com
The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Nicole Byers said the reform comes after 18-years of campaigning by many thousands of women and organisations across the country and follows a concerted campaign by Bauer Media over the past three months.
“This is a great win for women,” Nicole said.
“Bauer has been the latest of many to push for the tax to be removed – this has been a hard earned win for a reform that should have happened decades ago.
“We have played our part – in the last three or so months all our publications including The Australian Woman’s Weekly, ELLE , COSMOPOLITAN and our Trader titles which are read by around nine million people, have pushed for the change."
