The Albanese Government stripped the five per cent tariff from menstrual and sanitary products from July 1, amidst affordability concerns amongst Australian women and girls.* 

In March, the Labor Government announced it would gradually pursue cost-saving measures by cutting down on “nuisance” tariffs in the coming months, addressing various cost of living issues for a range of Australians.

According to the ABC, women in Australia have been paying as much as $11.99 on a single period product over the past year. Since last year’s inflation spike, a large proportion of women have been struggling to pay for these essential items. 

Monash University’s Period Positivity Scheme, where free tampons and pads are placed in bathrooms across Monash campuses, is a step that eases this burden for women studying at the university. 

However, Monash University Student Union (MONSU) representative for women, Nadine Herbiantoro, said this was not enough. 

“Especially for students, period products can be really expensive and I've noticed that people are actually stocking up from the university's supplies,” Herbiantoro said. 

“So they will actually take a lot more than what is necessary to stock up because they [do not] want to pay and actually go to Coles or Woolies to buy products.” 

Founder and Managing Director of Australian charity Share the Dignity, Rochelle Courtenay, has seen similar issues over the past year regarding women’s access to menstrual products. 

“You’ll find that all charities, including Share the Dignity, have seen a drop in donations,” Courtenay said. 

Courtenay founded Share the Dignity in 2015, after reading an article that claimed 48,000 women in Australia didn’t have somewhere safe to call home or have access to period products. 

Courtenay believed that “there wasn't a woman in Australia who wouldn't hand another woman in a bathroom a pad or tampon”.

This belief inspired her to set up a charity to assist women lacking access to menstrual products. 

Since then, Share the Dignity has gathered donations and distributed more than four million packets of period products to Australian women and girls, particularly to existing charities aiding women fleeing domestic violence. Also those who were experiencing homelessness and the inability to afford menstrual products, a circumstance known as ‘period poverty’. 

During the cost of living crisis, Courtenay described it as a “vicious cycle”, wherein people who would have normally donated $10 a month to these charities, were now declining in order to make ends meet and “look after themselves”. 

In 2018, Courtenay and Share the Dignity led the fight to rid menstrual products of the 10 per cent GST (Goods and Services Tax) applied to all imported items classified as non-essential. The tax was successfully removed in 2019, following Share the Dignity’s campaign. 

Regarding the recent import tariff removal, Courtenay said “it's a step forward to ensure menstrual equity”. 

“If we're putting a tariff on something that is a fundamental right, a health issue, that's not correct in the first place - it's rectifying a wrong,” she said. 

“Will it make a difference? Absolutely, it will bring the cost of them down, which will make them more affordable and make them more accessible to more people.” 

Both Herbiantoro and Courtenay believe that while any form of reduction on period product prices is good, women deserve much more when it comes to accessing these essential items. 

Herbiantoro said, “It's something half the world's population experiences, why do we need to still pay for that?”

Courtenay proposed “access to period products should be the same as access to toilet paper” in public spaces. For her, it is about ensuring ‘menstrual equity’ and providing period products “wherever a woman may be”. 

Both women acknowledge that a major obstacle to ending period poverty is the persistent shame and stigma associated with menstruating. 

“[We need to] educate girls and boys and women and men, because the boys who aren't being educated end up being someone's boss, husband or father, and they have no understanding [of] menstruation,” Courtenay said. 

Herbiantoro suggested the shame associated with period blood contributed to few women making use of reusable menstrual products. 

A survey conducted in 2023 by BMC Womens’ Health found only 37 per cent of the 595 participants reported use of a reusable period product in their past menstrual cycle. Upfront cost, lack of knowledge and education, were the main reasons women were not using these products. 

“The initial cost is what puts me off. I understand it would be more cost efficient in the long term, but when living week-to-week, sometimes you can't afford that cost at one time,” one survey respondent said.

Herbiantoro and Courtenay welcome the Albanese government’s recent move to include menstrual products in the stripping of these tariffs. They believe imported period products prices will be lowered and, in turn, the prices of Australian-made products could also fall to maintain competitiveness.

*It is acknowledged that not all women menstruate and not all people who menstruate are women.