VCE English Issues: Tampon Tax

New modelling shows that removing the so-called "tampon tax" - the 10% goods and services (GST) tax on feminine hygiene products - would cost states and territories about $40 million per year.

A tax on tampons and sanitary pads is a tax on women. But when our GST laws were written in 1999, they were mostly drafted by male public servants, reporting to a male-dominated cabinet, in an overwhelmingly male parliament.

This is not the first time menstruation has been debated in the Australian political arena, nor is it the first time it has been used to draw attention to inequality, but state and territory governments have yet to agree on ending GST on sanitary products.

"Look, once you start having these sorts of exemptions, where does it end? Where does it end?"

Noely Neate considers Treasurer Scott Morrison's removal of the "tax monkey" from the backs of craft beer producers, against the complete lack of tax action on tampons.