The Tampon Tax is axed - about bloody time!

It’s about bloody time!

It only took 18 years, but finally, our government got together, pulled some strings, and stopped ‘taxing our periods’. So, what does this actually mean?

Tampons have been considered a ‘luxury item’.

Anyone who buys sanitary products will no longer have to pay an extra 10% tax on top of the price of the good.

When the GST was brought in, 'essential health items’ were exempt from the tax. These included condoms, lubricants, razors, sunscreen, anti-dandruff shampoo and Viagra. Yep, basically, anything considered ‘essential’ to men.

MP Tanya Plibersek said it best when she said: “only a bunch of blokes sitting around a table would come to the conclusion that sanitary pads are anything other than an essential good”.

Your period is now ‘more affordable’.

All female sanitary products - tampons, pads, menstrual cups, maternity pads and even leak-proof underwear - will be exempt from the GST.

So by January 2019, we should be living in a new world where we can bleed, without being taxed for it.

"Scrapping the tampon tax will make sanitary products more affordable - but just as importantly, it will be an important step forward in gender equity," said Labor's health spokeswoman Catherine King in April.

The tampon tax contributed $30 million but the Coalition says that shortfall will be topped up elsewhere.