“All Queensland year 5 to year 8 students will continue to have access to the ‘Period Talk’ program,designed to educate about menstruation and the impact of periods.”

Victoria was the first state in Australia to allow universal access to free sanitary products in state schools. It began providing the products in every school from term 3 in 2019,and had installed dispensing machines in every school by the end of term 2,2020.

In NSW,a $30 million program to place pads and tampons in schools was announced in March this year,and was expected to be rolled out to every school by the end of this month.

Last year South Australia made free pads and tampons available across schools.

The expansion across the states followed trials in a bid to stop stigma surrounding periods,and prevent students missing school because of access issues.