Gemma Tognini: Brave Bill Shorten is missing the point

WHILE the federal Opposition Leader pledges to axe GST on tampons, structural reform is being ignored, writes Gemma Tognini.

There are a few subjects that even the bravest of men should only attempt to canvass at their peril.

And when I say peril, I mean in an “Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here” kind of way.

The great poet Dante, who gave us that phrase, put it at the entrance to Hell. And any woman of child-bearing age knows exactly where I’m going with this.

This last weekend, policy paper in hand, the federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten bravely launched himself deep into the heart of what is unreservedly and exclusively women’s business.

Turning up the volume on his best “I’m in touch with my feminine side” demeanour, Shorten announced that federal Labor would remove the GST from tampons should it get elected.

Forget the Prime Minister going to Yarralumla to see the Governor-General.

Gemma Tognini.

If ever there was a confirmation the election campaign had already started, this was it.

Now, as someone who could be described as an interested and invested stakeholder in this policy announcement, I have a view and it might just surprise you.

Of all the disingenuous, flimsy and insulting attempts to attract women’s votes, this one rates a 12 out of 10.

What a non-event. What an insult to assume we as women are so one-dimensional.

It’s the Tupperware lunch box of tax policy — completely see-through and mass-produced in the factory of gender politics.

You had me at tampon? Yeah nah, Bill, you really didn’t.

It might surprise the federal Opposition Leader to know that most women from all walks of life care about things more complex than cheaper tampons. Shocking, I know.

We care about energy reliability (and just so everyone is clear, more affordable and reliable is good; more expensive and more frequent blackouts, bad).

We care about the falling standard of education.

Border security.

‘Get it done, it’s 2017!’: Bickmore fires up about tampon tax during heated interview on The Project

Disappearing jobs in the manufacturing industry (for one) due at least in part to the fact that Australia has become a prohibitively expensive place to do business and one of the highest-taxing countries in the OECD.

Expecting us to swoon with gratitude for knocking 50 cents off the price of a personal essential is just an insult.

Particularly when it’s likely that, should Labor win government, this will be the only tax he would ever wind up cutting.

Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten. Picture: Alix Sweeney

In fact, it’s not even that much of a tax cut, with alternative medicines set to pick up the slack by losing their own GST exemptions.

It’s almost laughable, all of a sudden Mr Shorten proclaiming his interest in the one thing no sensible man on the planet in possession of his right mind should be interested in.

Next thing you know, old mate Bill will be trying to tell us he’s gonna nick down to the IGA for a hot water bottle, some chocolate and a pack of Panadol every month. What a guy.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Pliberseck was quoted over the weekend as saying that there was “now no excuse” for the not removing GST on tampons.

But why now all of a sudden, as opposed to during all the years Labor was in office?

Perhaps because the Coalition is finally beginning to claw its way back into within cooee of coming off life support in the polls.

It’s a brilliantly, cynically mixed message, isn’t it?

We don’t want to treat women differently — save when it’s politically expedient.

Everybody knows the GST system is imperfect, having been born with more exclusions than a vegan diet.

What this means, according to tax experts, is that the effective rate of GST in Australia is actually more like 6 per cent (give or take) than 10 per cent, and falling because we are, as a nation, spending more on things such as basic food, health and education which are, of course, exempt.

Better, braver policy would be more focused on structural improvement that will address the fundamental flaws we’re still saddled with. A PwC report showed an approach such as broadening the base and/or increasing the rate (while still compensating those most vulnerable) would have a positive budgetary impact.

It sensibly advocated a broader approach focused on actual reform outcomes rather than politically driven ones.

Is this really the big issue?

But broadening the tax base to make it ultimately more efficient and fair is hard work.

Pandering to women seems easy in comparison. Talking about a potential rise to the GST as a means of addressing deep-seated structural matters sends politicians on both sides into a meltdown.

Tragically for us, nobody has the ticker or the balls (pardon the lingo but I think we can all agree it is OK in the context of this column) to drive a reform discussion that goes anywhere except in a circular motion.

Surely the better conversation, albeit the harder one, is one that goes beyond removing the GST from politically popular things. All this does is further compromise an already compromised tax.

A $30 million saving?

Last I checked, we’re $600 billion down the drain and counting.

Real reform is always about the greater good and the longer term. We need big-picture thinking, not gender-focused nonsense that addresses only a small part of the puzzle.

Gemma Tognini is managing director of gtmedia. She is speaking tonight at the Menzies Research Centre’s event, Beyond A Joke: Why Humour Is An Australian Value. Tickets: menziesrc.org/events

Originally published as Gemma Tognini: Brave Bill Shorten is missing the point