Culture

Anti-Tampon Tax Campaigners Are Now Sending Joe Hockey Passive Aggressive Thank You Notes

"Let's keep Mr Hockey to his word."

by Meg Watson  5 June 2015
Tampon tax

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It’s been close to a full month since Sydney Uni student Subeta Vimalarajah first launched her petition to remove the GST from sanitary items and the government still has a bloody great mess on its hands.

The campaign has nearly recruited 100,000 formal supporters, the story has worldwide media attention and Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott can’t quite seem to get their story straight. Is the issue going to be raised at the next meeting of the Treasurers as first promised, or has the esteemed Minister for Women officially nixed it? Did the dancing tampons make any difference, Tone? You can’t leave them dangling forever.

After a full week with no word, Vimalarajah has now launched a new initiative to thank the Treasurer for his commitment in an attempt to keep the issue on the agenda. “Right now, our campaign hinges on Mr Hockey following through with raising the tampon tax with the states in July, but a lot of his colleagues are breathing down his neck to drop it,” she wrote in an email to supporters last night. “We know [he] agrees that this unfair tax should go, so let’s send him thousands of thank you messages to harden his resolve.”

It’s kind of like when you thank your housemate for doing the dishes when you’ve just finished eating dinner — except much, much more satisfying.

In an attempt to garner as much support as possible, Vimalarajah is encouraging people to call Hockey’s office directly — on (02) 6277 7340 — flood his Twitter, or email him with a template she’s already set up.

“I want to thank you for committing to raise the tampon tax at the upcoming meeting of the states and territories on Q&A last week,” the message reads. “The tampon tax is a discriminatory and unfair tax that has no place in contemporary Australia. Thank you for the important financial and symbolical [sic] step you have taken towards making Australia’s tax system fairer for half the population.”

“Five state treasurers have already come out in support of scrapping the tampon tax, and the remaining three have indicated that they are open to discussion. Please stand strong and do your part to repeal the tampon tax at the upcoming meeting … I know you’re under pressure from within your party, but I want you to know you have my support. I’m backing you on this.”

Obviously the idea itself is pretty cheeky, but the execution is surprisingly earnest.

“Politicians don’t often get to be the good guys,” Vimalarajah wrote to her followers. “Sometimes a simple thank you is all that it takes to convince them to do the right thing.”

Now, it looks like many of them are taking her cue:

Though this comes as a result of the issue being stalled on the domestic front, campaigners are being spurred on by similar initiatives around the world. Petitions in the UK, Italy, France and Malaysia are all gaining traction and, last week, the conservative Canadian government passed a private member’s bill to scrap the tax on their own sanitary items. This came about after the issue was brought up by a Change.org petition with 74,000 signatures — that’s fewer supporters than Vimalarajah’s campaign from a country with at least 10 million more people.

Clearly, this fight isn’t over yet.

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You can send Mr Hockey a thank you message here.