The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/0001/20/text/features5.html When PMT meets GST by Anne Summers Date: 20/01/2000 I HOPE for their sakes that the Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, and the Health Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, are not faint-hearted sorts of chaps, because they have in front of them the formidable task of trying to explain to the women of Australia why penile clamps (to treat male incontinence) will be exempt from the GST whereas, for the first time ever, tampons and other sanitary products are about to be taxed. The protests that are already planned are going to be colourful and confrontational, but if they think it is only the politically active who are stirred up about this proposed impost on being female, let me share a little anecdote. In mid-1992, when I was working as a political consultant to Prime Minister Paul Keating and researching the issues which really riled Australian women, the real standout was totally unexpected. In every single focus group in every single town and State, totally unprompted, at least one woman would complain about the price of tampons and other sanitary protection. Her protest would attract instant, unanimous endorsement from the other women and, invariably, someone would proffer the explanation that the high price of these products was because they were subject to a government-imposed "luxury tax". This information generally provoked outrage along the lines of "How dare the government tax a natural function", "That's taxing being a woman" and so on. I sped back to Canberra and informed the Prime Minister and his advisers that if they wanted to make themselves very popular with women, they should get rid of this tax. One of my more cherished memories from my time in Keating's office was observing the Prime Minister and his male advisers discussing with only minimal discomfiture this subject, one that had never previously crossed their political radar screens (or personal ones either, in all likelihood). "Lets get rid of it," they concluded. One of the women ministers was lined up to make the running on the issue; press announcements were planned. We were all feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. There was only one problem. It turned out there was no tax, luxury or otherwise, on tampons - or any of the other products women need to use each month. Nor had there ever been. But the belief that there is such a tax is one of the most pervasive and persistent urban myths in this country, and one which refuses to go away. It is so widespread that in 1986 the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation even issued a press release confirming the no-tax status of these products, hoping no doubt to kill the myth once and for all. It did not work. Even today, the myth of the luxury tax lives on as the news spreads that sanitary products will be subject to the GST. Some women on the various online chat groups that have been discussing this over recent days have enthused that the price of these products will fall as the GST replaces the "luxury tax". These women are in for a rude shock on July 1. Depending on the brand, tampons cost from 19 to 24 cents each and on average a woman would use 20 a month, totalling $48 a year, or $52 once the GST is applied. This might not sound like a lot, especially when compared with the sums many women spend on make-up or hair- and skin-care products, but the perception among women is that since they have no choice about whether or not to purchase sanitary products, these prices are exploitative. Also many women need to supplement tampons with pads so their total annual bill will be a lot higher. (And, of course, in a family of several women these amounts add up - yet the GST compensation will not take the gender composition of families into account.) Women who feel ripped off can take comfort from the fact that two separate prices surveillance inquiries into tampon prices concurred with them. In 1986, after receiving constant consumer complaints, the PSA looked into the matter and concluded that the degree of concentration in the industry - Johnson and Johnson, maker of Meds and Carefree brands, then accounted for 80 per cent of the market - allowed the company to achieve excessive profits. Johnson and Johnson's profitability was higher than any other Australian company supplying food, textiles or household items, the PSA found, and its return on sales was more than double the average for the sample of Australian companies analysed in the Stock Exchange Financial and Profitability Study 1985-86. Its return on assets was more than three times the average for the same sample of companies. In other words, women are not wrong when they perceive the price of these products to be high - but it has nothing to do with taxes. As a result of these findings, the PSA refused four of 10 applications by Johnson and Johnson to increase the price of tampons between 1986 and 1994 and, as a result, claimed the price in 1994 was 11.5 per cent lower than it would otherwise have been. By 1994, Johnson and Johnson's market share had declined to less than 60 per cent due to competition from new entrants such as the maker of Libra brand, and the tampon share of the sanitary protection market had also declined, in part due to the toxic shock syndrome scare in the late 1980s, but also because of a great improvement in panty liners, ultra-thin pads and other alternatives. The total "feminine hygiene" market - as it is euphemistically called by retailers - is today worth $202.1 million and is set to reap about $20 million in GST revenues. The question the Government should be asking itself is: is it going to be worth the political pain of alienating millions of women to earn a sum that is paltry compared with the total GST take? In 1994 the PSA put the total number of women using these products at 4.067 million, but that was a highly conservative estimate. The PSA defined women of menstrual age as being between 15 and 44, but most girls these days start much younger than that and few women experience menopause before their early 50s. Also, many women today will continue to need protection so long as they are using hormone replacement therapy. I know women in their 60s who still have to rush off to the chemist or the supermarket each month to buy tampons. In other words, there are likely to be many millions of women for whom the monthly GST will be as bad as PMT - and who will let the Government know how they feel. Feeding their outrage are some curious exemptions and anomalies. The Government has exempted such discretionary items as condoms, personal lubricants and sunscreen from the GST but not health necessities like tampons. It has exempted incontinence pads on the grounds that without them, sufferers would be disabled. The same argument surely applies to sanitary pads. Collectives are setting up across the country to organise protest actions which will culminate in a national day of action on February 25, during Orientation Week at universities. These collectives are supported by the Women's Electoral Lobby and the women's office of the National Union of Students. Activists are debating whether to use red ink or actual blood as props in planned "bleed-ins" and posters such "Mr Howard, we're bleeding enough", "No taxation on menstruation" and "Reclaim the rags" banners have already been prepared. If the men who imposed this tax don't have the stomach to deal with these sorts of political actions, perhaps they had better rethink the whole thing. Anne Summers is an author and journalist. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
