Just before the GST came in,there was considerable community dismay that sanitary pads and tampons would attract the 10 per cent consumption tax,and the Democrats (having agreed to the GST's make-up in 1999)tried to get an amendment.
At the time,health minister Michael Wooldridge dismissed the idea,arguing as a"bloke"he'd like shaving cream to be exempt. Nationals MP (and George Christensen's predecessor in Dawson) Dee-Anne Kelly said it was a"Barbie doll"issue. Prime minister John Howard emphatically told the ABC,"[the GST] is now the law and I'm opposed to any further exemptions".
Scoot forward 17 years and nothing much has changed. Swap out Malcolm Turnbull for Howard,schools funding and energy policy for the GST,and the Greens for the Democrats and it's almost spooky.
This week,Greens co-Deputy Leader Larissa Waters tried to get the Senate to exempt sanitary items as part of a bill to apply GST to imported goods worth $1000 or less. Waters,the party's spokeswoman for women,says the GST on tampons is effectively a tax on"women existing".
Nevertheless,her amendment was knocked back by the Senate,15 votes to 33,with Labor and the government voting to keep the tax in place. The government argued all states and territories needed to agree to a GST change and they tried this when Joe Hockey was treasurer and it didn't work. Labor said the Greens were grandstanding and the government should sit down again with the states (i.e. everyone blamed everyone else).
Of all the issues facing women and the country today,the GST on tampons isnot the most pressing or gigantic,by any objective measure.