Bills

Statutes Amendment (Free Menstrual Hygiene Products Pilot Program) Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:27): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Education Act 1972 and the Education and Children's Services Act 2019. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:29): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

It gives me great pleasure to co-introduce the Statutes Amendment (Free Menstrual Hygiene Products Pilot Program) Bill 2019, with my parliamentary Labor colleague, the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos. The bill allows for a trial of dispensing machines providing free menstrual hygiene products in South Australian public secondary schools. I am proud to say that I have worked on this private members' bill with the Hon. Ms Pnevmatikos, who will also rise to speak on it today as co-sponsor.

The government's response to date to news of the bill has been utterly disappointing but not surprising. It has repeated that it is satisfied with the piecemeal arrangement currently operating in schools with respect to the provision of pads and tampons in schools. To that, I say that our students deserve more respect and dignity than this pitiful response.

I have already explained at length, when speaking to my motion on the issue, why the current system is not working and is in desperate need of change, and I know that I am not alone in this. Last month, the Commissioner for Children and Young People released her poverty report, Leave No One Behind. As previously noted by me in this place, the report documents a series of discussions and conversations the commissioner had with children and young people who explained to her what living in poverty is like for them and what they think needs to be done to address the impacts of it right now.

From December 2018 to June 2019, the commissioner consulted with more than 1,400 South Australian children and young people, aged 12 to 22 years, via workshops, focus groups, a poverty survey and a poverty summit. It included a number who had a lived experience of poverty, with the remainder drawing on their observations of those in their schools and the broader community who they see living with the impact of poverty daily.

Poverty is real in South Australia and across the country more broadly. The inequity that exists between rich and poor continues to grow in this country. In 2018, SACOSS reported more than 60,660 South Australian households were living below the poverty line. This represents 9 per cent of all households or 131,945 South Australians, 22,350 of whom are children and young people under the age of 18. This is what the commissioner had to say in her report with respect to that lived experience of children and young people not able to freely access hygiene and sanitary products:

Hygiene participants told us about the impact not being able to afford hygiene products such as deodorant, toothpaste and soap has on young men and women. They commented on how being poor impacts 'whether or not you bathe well and get the right amount of care for your body'...

For young women 'period poverty' was a real issue raised in a number of groups. Girls told us about missing school because they couldn't afford sanitary products.

A number of girls spoke about the products being available at school, but that the process of accessing them was embarrassing and required quite a lot of self-disclosure which many were not comfortable to provide…

For a lot of females in poverty menstrual products are inaccessible.

A young person also talked about how hygiene needed to be 'role modelled', explaining that if you are not taught how to take proper care of yourself then it is difficult to know what to do, or what and how to ask for help. We learnt that for some families because good hygiene is not achievable, it is therefore not taught.

I find it appalling and heartbreaking that there are children and young people in South Australia who do not have access to such basic items that the rest of us take for granted. I know I have said that before and I will keep saying it on this very issue. Just imagine the indignity of a teenage girl going to the school office when she is menstruating to ask for a pad or tampon because they are only made available for emergencies, according to the minister, and having to disclose such personal information about yourself—that you are bleeding and in need of a tampon—to whoever it is that you are confronted with at the front office.

It would be embarrassing for any of us, and it should not happen. The current regime of accessing pads and tampons in our schools is woefully inadequate and must change. The issue of access is one that the government just does not seem to get. In her report, the commissioner made the following recommendation that, and I quote:

Government, Feminine Hygiene Industry, and community partners expand the current piecemeal provisions of sanitary product support and develop a free, accessible and non-stigmatising supply and distribution scheme for a range of hygiene and sanitary products.

The government is yet to respond, of course, to the commissioner's report, and I have already outlined the government's position to my questioning on this issue in the chamber as being woefully out of date and dismissive of our young girls attending South Australian schools.

I also previously noted that I have met with the commissioner since her report was published regarding the viability of the current process and also the appropriateness of those arrangements in schools in terms of accessing sanitary products. She advised that her office undertook a test to see what schools are doing in practice.

She contacted 24 schools, and the commissioner confirmed that most schools provide products upon request, that those products have to be dispensed by an adult staff member. Staff reported that the availability of the products themselves is not readily promoted or publicised by schools, that the availability of the products is not often guaranteed and, moreover, that the arrangements at most if not all of the schools were at best ad hoc in nature.

It is appalling that students do not even know what the current process is in terms of obtaining a pad or tampon at their school and that the arrangements across schools is not consistent. In fact, there were reports of teachers buying sanitary products and keeping them at the school so that they could provide to students who they knew could not provide them, such is the piecemeal approach to this issue. It is a piecemeal approach that smacks in the face of ensuring the three As—accessibility, affordability and availability—in a non-stigmatising environment and, of course, to all cultural groups, which I have said before is a very important consideration in this context.

Again, as I have said before, the need for these products is absolutely no different to the need for toilet paper, and they should be universally available without exception. Again, as I have said before, just imagine the outcry if schools did not provide toilet paper. Just imagine if male students were forced to trot down to the front office, find a staff member over 18, and request toilet paper when they used a toilet as opposed to a urinal. That is what we are expecting young girls who cannot afford menstrual hygiene products to do in our schools and it is completely and utterly unacceptable.

I called on the Premier to step in and take the lead on this crucial issue because his education minister has so far refused to do so. He will have us believe—and I will say this again—that the current system in our schools is sufficient. The commissioner's report clearly indicates otherwise and makes very clear the impact period poverty can have on a young woman. It can and does have significant and life changing impacts on their lives by adversely impacting their participation in a range of activities or resulting in missing out on attending school altogether. So I am very disappointed in the Premier for not leading on this issue to support our female students in schools.

Young girls and women should be able to manage their menstruation hygienically with confidence and dignity and without stigma regardless of their personal and/or financial circumstances. And I will keep standing up in this place and banging on about a young woman's period until we get some action from the government. It should be the unanimous agreement of this chamber that it is totally unacceptable that any girl or woman in Australia is unable to access sanitary items due entirely to their financial circumstances. It is imperative that we find ways of making menstrual hygiene products accessible to girls and women who would not otherwise have access to them and that the government assists in the facilitation of such access just as they do with toilet paper.

This private member's bill builds on the premise of my motion, which we will vote on shortly in this place today. I am calling on the government to fix the current system, and I look forward to hearing the government's response in relation to that motion. I was concerned that there would be no support for it, so I have developed this bill in consultation with my colleague the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos, and I am pleased that the opposition is supportive of this.

I also recognise and acknowledge the work that the former minister for education did on this issue when the opposition was in government. I commend them for that work. I find it completely mind-boggling that, after almost two years, those arrangements have not been put in place, arrangements concerning a memorandum of understanding between the education department and schools so that these products can be more universally available for our young girls. It is our intention to take the bill to a vote soon, whether we prorogue or not.

If successful, the effect of the bill will be to establish a pilot program for free menstrual hygiene products, including the rollout of dispensing machines across the state-run secondary schools. It provides for that program to commence within six months of the passage of the bill and to run for not less than two years. The Commissioner for Children and Young People will then prepare a report on the pilot to be provided to the minister and tabled in parliament within six days after receipt of the report. I note that the Education Act and the Education and Children's Services Act have both been amended in this bill, a reflection of the fact that the latter act has yet to commence.

As I have said before on the record, we all know that the Victorian Labor government has already announced a world-first program to provide students in every government school in the state with access to free pads and tampons. They did not need legislation to get that measure up because common sense prevailed. That is something that seems to be lacking in South Australia on this issue. It is a government-led initiative, which I think all of us welcomed at the time, but one that, again, has not prevailed in South Australia.

As I have said before, we also know that, in July 2017, the Scottish government announced that it would distribute free menstrual hygiene products to those in low-income households as part of a six-month pilot program in Aberdeen. That program was launched by the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance. The pilot scheme made tampons and other sanitary items easily accessible to those who need them but cannot afford them. It was funded by the Scottish government and provided for free at selected locations, such as secondary schools, shelters and food banks.

At the time, it was the first of its kind in the UK and was expected to help about 1,000 women and girls in its six-month trial. The Scottish government recognised that its policies in this area had fallen short of what was needed to even begin to tackle period poverty. I just wish that the Marshall Liberal government would do the same. The trial's outstanding success saw an expansion of that project in May last year before the government dedicated £5.2 million to offer free products to all pupils in Scotland in August of last year. If we cannot get a pilot up in this state, let alone free access across all schools in a timely manner, then something is seriously wrong.

In January of this year, the Scottish government committed a further £4 million to tackle period poverty, making free sanitary products available in more public places. The funding is given to councils, who work with other organisations to meet local needs. As I have said before, the fact is that the situation described in Scotland is in no way dissimilar, by any stretch of the imagination, to what is happening right here in Australia, which is why we need to act. If it takes a bill like this to get the government's support, then that is what we will debate.

Regrettably, we have been forced to drag the Marshall Liberal government to the table on this issue via this bill because it has not had the tenacity to do so itself. I am not alone in this. The Advertiser just today reports that parents and teachers are also demanding the state government fund free pads and tampons from dispensing machines in schools. About 80 per cent of 1,362 respondents to a survey by parent group SA Association of State School Organisations were in support of a scheme that provided those products.

Soon after being elected to this place I indicated that I have been working with Share the Dignity, an organisation which operates with an army of dedicated volunteers and helps provide menstrual hygiene products for underprivileged women and girls across Australia. It does so by installing period pack dispensing machines in schools and hospitals across Australia and other public places, or private places indeed. They have plans to expand that program in South Australia and are in current negotiations with the Department for Education, although they are progressing slowly. I have also spoken of another not-for-profit group that is doing the same.

So I am urging all sides of politics to support this private member's bill. Again, I am extremely grateful for the opposition's co-sponsoring of this bill. A young woman getting her period should not be an impediment to receiving a wonderful education that has the potential to lay the foundations of a wonderful life and career. It is a well-known fact that an inability to access pads and tampons can negatively impact on young persons' education, sporting pursuits and other activities.

I can stand up here every single week and repeat this same message until it finally filters through to those who need to get it. I have no qualms in doing that whatsoever, because in a society as rich as South Australia such a circumstance is completely unacceptable. So I hope honourable members on this side of the bench grow accustomed to listening to the problems that young women have in tackling something that is as natural as getting their period but not being able to access the products they need in order to take part in daily activities that we all take for granted.

With those words, I commend the bill to the chamber. I commend the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos and the Hon. Emily Bourke for their support and in fact the opposition as a whole for their support on this most important issue, and I look forward to the government coming on board with this amazing initiative.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (16:47): Thank you for the opportunity to speak through the contingency motion on the menstrual hygiene pilot bill to facilitate Labor's co-sponsoring of this bill. Today, we are presented with an opportunity to assist in normalising and destigmatising an issue that too many have been too uncomfortable to discuss. It is way overdue.

According to census there are approximately 100,686 girls aged between 15 and 19 in South Australia; there are also 60,660 households in our state living below the poverty line. This bill is an opportunity to encourage better learning outcomes for the students who may fall in either catchment and to reduce the pressure and strain on teachers to fund the needs of students through their own personal resources.

It is about supporting access to sanitary products because it absolutely should not be an additional barrier to getting a good education. It is an issue of access and equity for young girls. Periods are a fact of life, but for students in school it can cause inconvenience, frustration and embarrassment, especially if you are unprepared or unable to resource source adequate products.

This bill has the ability to have a positive impact on all. Thanks to the investigations undertaken by the Commissioner for Children and Young People, we are clear that schools, teachers and youth alike strongly support adequate resourcing of sanitary items for girls in schools. It was a position so strongly felt that the commissioner deemed it important to investigate the matter further and conduct a follow-up report involving 48 public secondary schools in metropolitan and regional areas.

That report found that in 55 per cent of the schools word of mouth is the only way students find out about getting access to sanitary items. Seventy-four per cent of schools believe that access to sanitary items is an issue for their students. Thirty-seven per cent of schools rely on a manufacturer, charity or community group to fill the gap in supply. Almost 20 per cent of schools report that teachers—all female—are purchasing for students with their own money, and 88 per cent of schools want the department to resource sanitary products.

The commissioner recommended the need for a free accessible supply and distribution scheme for a range of hygiene and sanitary products, in an environment that did not stigmatise girls. This is further supported by the South Australian Association of State School Organisations, which has also conducted a survey on this very matter, as referred to by my colleague the Hon. Connie Bonaros.

In essence, of the over 1,300 respondents, around 80 per cent were in support of reducing period poverty by funding free sanitary items in public schools. These reports and surveys led to collaborative efforts being undertaken by the Hon. Connie Bonaros and the Labor opposition to explore how we can best respond to this issue. It flows on from the then Labor government's 2018 election policy commitment to work with federal Labor to remove the GST imposed on menstrual hygiene products and from Victorian Labor, which also saw the need to introduce policy to address period poverty.

I thank my Labor Party colleagues—in particular, Emily Bourke and the shadow cabinet—and the Hon. Connie Bonaros for the opportunity to transcend our differences to work collaboratively to achieve a better opportunity for girls in our state. Just like soap and toilet paper, sanitary items should be considered a necessity for students in schools. The state government has a duty of care to all students in its care and needs to do what it can to support students on this matter.

I am concerned by the education minister's comments in today's paper, citing it is 'already common practice in schools to have sanitary items available to students who need them'. The statistics brought to light by the commissioner do not mirror this statement. In fact, 100 per cent of the schools surveyed confirmed that they only have some form of informal or semiformal response to address the issue. In most cases, these are emergency measures, and in many cases they are reliant on the goodwill and pockets of our teachers.

It is totally unacceptable that any girl in a secondary school is unable to access sanitary items in a discreet and timely manner, due entirely to their financial circumstances. It is important to clarify that this bill does not require free pads and tampons to be rolled out in all schools. That would be ideal if it did, but I acknowledge that there are steps that need to be undertaken in order to reach that point. We need to ascertain the dimensions of the matter and be able to cost it before instituting a broader universal scheme.

What this bill does do is start the process by initiating a pilot program to determine the balance between supply and demand. It also does not dictate how the Minister for Education should roll out the program, although one would expect the minister to undertake a pilot to lay the groundwork for the rollout of a more universal scheme, having regard for demand and cost factors.

It is imperative that we find ways of making menstrual hygiene products accessible to girls and women who are not able to access them or would not otherwise have access to them. I do not want to read more reports where girls, mothers and grandmothers are calling for action because girls are missing school when they have their periods because they do not want to change pads at school. Often there is no soap, there are often no rubbish bins or there is one rubbish bin outside the toilet, which is really embarrassing to use.

Australia has made a global promise to end period poverty. We have the responsibility to address access to sanitary products not only in our aid and development efforts overseas but also in South Australia. If a girl or woman cannot afford the appropriate items she needs, she will use alternative methods or take extreme measures to access sanitary items. Her learning outcomes will be jeopardised and she is likely left feeling isolated and alone.

This is not the impression we want to instil in our young girls and our education system. It needs to be supportive, non-discriminatory and safe for our girls. It may be difficult to determine the extent to which poverty impacts on the daily life of girls and women, but it is not hard to see the impact a program like this would have on the hardships associated with poverty.

Periods are a normal part of life for most women. We as leaders have the responsibility to lay bare the taboo subject of menstruation. We have a responsibility to make it normal and give women and girls the best access to menstrual hygiene and provide opportunities and choices for our young people.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.