Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am very disappointed to hear that. I acknowledge what the minister said about health items, and that is indeed the point I am trying to make. By not listing tampons and pads and sanitary items as health items they are in effect being deemed as de facto luxury goods. How on earth can condoms and lube and sunscreen be called health products—which they should be—but not sanitary items? So thank you, Minister—you have reinforced the very point I was trying to make, although I do not think that was your intention.

Yes, this was discussed at COAG in August 2015. That is almost two years ago now, and what a shame that we have had a continual roadblock. We have half the states and territories on board. We have since had a change of government in WA, so I would hazard a guess that we now have more than half of the states and territories agreeing to remove this sexist tax. I have written to the state and territory premiers and treasurers in the last week, urging them to reconsider their position and pointing out that there would not be any net revenue loss by virtue of the revenue that is likely to be raised from this bill passing with the support of each of your parties. I hope that they are considering that correspondence. I know that they are receiving a lot of calls from their own constituents, because people care about this issue. This is an unfair tax that penalises women, and there is no good reason for it to continue.

I am very disappointed that you say now is not the chance to fix it. We have very few opportunities to do the right thing in this chamber, and today is one of them. I find it really disappointing and not very persuasive that you are saying it is not a good idea to do it today. I do not buy that and I do not think the Australian community will buy that.

This is, of course, why we moved the second reading amendment, which said, 'Let's delay the discussion of this particular bill until those state and territory premiers can have a chance to consider the views of their constituents and, hopefully, get on board with the momentum to removing this sexist tax.' Unfortunately, we did not receive any support for that amendment. Sadly, it looks like we are not going to receive any support for this amendment either. I think Australian women will be incredibly disappointed with this chamber if that is how the vote goes and I urge both parties to reconsider their position before the vote happens.