Removal of the Tampon Tax: A Costless or Pyrrhic Victory?

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2018 the conservative government in Australia yielded to a sustained campaign of public pressure to remove the goods and services tax (GST) on menstrual products. The campaign is regarded by many as an unequivocal success – an unjust tax was removed from a class of product purchased almost exclusively by women at a minimal cost to revenue. In the process it forced attention to women's bodies, women's rights and furthered the burgeoning menstrual rights movement. However, this article contends that this optimistic assessment is premised on an unduly narrow frame. A broader assessment of the relevant costs and gains of the campaign shows that the victory was neither complete nor costless. The narrow liberal concern of equal treatment on a single issue – the removal of the GST on menstrual products – left the underlying political and economic structures that subordinate women mostly unchallenged including in relation to key concerns of the menstrual rights movement such as the removal of menstrual stigma. Moreover, this singular focus on a narrow end through the pursuit of an anti-tax campaign runs the risk of undermining exactly the types of collective action required to address women's economic subordination within the tax and transfer system as well as the broader economy and society.