Axe the tax
IT IS ESSENTIALLY a tax on being female. Since the GST was introduced 18 years ago, women have been forced to pay a 10 per cent luxury levy on menstrual products, despite other health items including Viagra and nicotine patches being exempt. The Weekly has been part of a campaign being run by Australia’s leading women’s magazines to lobby for the tax to be removed, joining numerous charities and public gures who have long been calling for an end to this unfair tax. The Country Women’s Association has called it an “insult to women”. Deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek called it a “dumb decision”, saying “only a bunch of blokes sitting around a table would come to the conclusion that sanitary pads are anything other than an essential good”. On August 3, then Treasurer Scott Morrison vowed to remove the GST on tampons, but the No Gender Selective Tax campaign will not end until this fee on being female is abolished. The campaign is about equity, about respect for women and about making a change to the tax system that should have been made years ago. Visit bloodyannoying.com to sign the petition.