Over the years, many in Australia have campaigned unsuccessfully to put an end to the GST on women’s sanitary products, but this weekend, Labor leaders announced that they have a plan to get rid of the so-called ‘tampon tax’ if they win government at the next election.
The Australian government raises an estimated $30 million annually thanks to the GST on sanitary products, and today, Tanya Plibersek said that Labor’s intent would be to recoup that lost money by placing GST on various natural therapies like herbalism and naturopathy.
The states and territories would need to agree with the federal government before any attempt to remove the GST could go ahead, but speaking to the Nine Network today, Plibersek said that because of the plan to replace the money, Labor is confident that it will get the necessary support.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Nine that the current government already has a policy in place to remove GST from sanitary items (Joe Hockey also made an attempt to do so back in 2015), but that states and territories are still standing in the way.
“The point is this: any change to the GST must be agreed by each state and territory government,” Bishop said, “and there is no agreement for the states and territories on this issue.”
Opposition leader Bill Shorten nonetheless seems confident in the plan, and taking to social media this morning, he declared that the tampon tax is an “unfair tax on women”, and promised that a Labor government will remove it.
The tampon tax is an unfair tax on women. That’s why we are getting rid of it. pic.twitter.com/S3vHNMZCVQ
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) April 28, 2018
Addressing the National Press Club earlier this year, Plibersek said that the GST on sanitary items was “a dumb decision we just have to fix”, adding that “in the scope of the whole federal budget and the amount we collect in GST, I think that the technical term is ‘bugger all’.”
