Australian Politicians Just Failed to Axe the 'Tampon Tax'

The Federal Senate has voted down a proposal from Greens MP Larissa Waters to remove the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST) from women's menstrual products such as tampons and sanitary pads.

Both sides of politics opposed Waters' amendment, which was defeated 33 votes to 15. While the government would lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue from adding tampons and pads to the GST exemptions list, Waters cited a new Australian Taxation Office initiative, which adds GST to "low value goods" and thereby raises an extra $300 million of revenue each year, as justification for axing the so-called "tax on periods."

"Labor and the Coalition voted today to keep taxing women's biology. Periods are not a luxury, and sanitary items are not luxury items—they are necessities," Waters told the Senate. She's since taken to Twitter and labelled the senators who voted against her amendment "a bloody disgrace."

The Australian Labor Party opposed the bill, despite Labor politicians saying they ostensibly supported removing GST on menstrual items. Labor senator Katy Gallagher argued against the bill by saying a different and more cooperative approach to changing the tax was needed.

"Considering how important the GST is for states and territories, and indeed the agreement that exists between the Commonwealth and states and territories around GST arrangements, that these discussions about how this should be done and when it should be done, needs to happen with all those parties," she told the Senate.

"Whilst we won't support this amendment this morning, we do acknowledge the intent behind it and, from the Labor party's view, this is something we need to look at further and examine and discuss with all relevant parties on how the removal of GST from sanitary products could be progressed with the agreement of all parties."

The Liberal party meanwhile refused to acknowledge Waters' argument that tampons and pads should not constitute "luxury" items. The bill found support from Nick Xenophon Team, Derryn Hinch, David Leyonhjelm, and Lucy Gichuhi—but this wasn't enough to push it through.

Tampons are notably excluded from GST equivalents in the United States and Canada, and the "Tampon Tax" debate has raged in Australia since the GST was first introduced back in 2000. This somewhat heated retro ABC interview between AM reporter Annie White and the then-Prime Minister John Howard provides a great example of the rhetoric that has been used to justify GST on tampons by politicians over the past decade and a half.

In short, the Liberal Government that introduced GST never wanted any exemptions to the tax. Their concessions—mainly to eliminate GST for basic food products—were concessions to the Democrats who held the balance of power in the Senate at the time.

As it stands, you have to admit GST in Australia is applied somewhat illogically. Condoms and lube? Untaxed. Toilet paper? Taxed. A raw slab of chicken? Untaxed. Thin tubes of absorbent cotton that a vast majority of women under the age of 55 are forced to shove up their vaginal canals every month in order to stem a thick stream of constantly-flowing blood? Taxed, as much as ever.

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