David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

You can see why there's angst amongst the community when your government puts them on a list that also includes things like vapes, gambling and sports tickets. Thank you for the clarification, but I just want to dig into what it might be that the NDIA are going to have to test when they have to determine whether someone's access to period products is 'solely and directly' related to their disability.

Before I do that, I want to recognise the work of Women With Disabilities Australia, who've been surveying their members on the potential impact of this change as quickly as they can so they can respond to the consultation in the small time that has been given to them by the government that talks a lot about co-design.

I've heard stories of people with connective tissue disorders who cannot change their own tampons without assistance. It's not safe for them to wait with a tampon in, potentially for hours, for a support worker to assist, so they may need to use period underwear, which they likely can only obtain, at the moment, with the assistance of the NDIS. Let's not forget that period poverty is a very real thing in Australia. Minister, under the test of solely and directly, would those participants be able to access period underwear?