Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (23:57): (2669) My adjournment is to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality. The action I seek is for the minister to support biological women and girls experiencing period poverty in Victoria by providing appropriate resources, including female nurses in all schools, to administer period pain relief, offer medical and pastoral support and provide essential education. Minister, I recently attended a forum in Frankston with local high school students. I was incredibly moved by a group of young female secondary students who talked openly about the impact of period poverty on their lives. These young women spoke with passion, intelligence and insight. I promised them that I would raise their voices in Parliament.

In Australia 64 per cent of women have found it difficult to buy period products, and nearly 30 per cent have purposely rationed products to cut costs. With the current cost-of-living crisis hitting Victorian families hard, the reality for teenage girls today is undoubtedly worse. Parents are facing soaring mortgages and bills, leaving many financially stretched, exhausted and time poor. Parents are often not emotionally or physically available to have the conversations or provide the support their daughters need. Some parents cannot even afford the safest yet more expensive basic necessities for their daughters. Furthermore, nearly four in five women experience painful, heavy or irregular periods. For many girls, these symptoms are so debilitating that they are missing school. Victoria calls itself the Education State, yet only two-thirds of Victorian government schools have access to a school nurse. The students at the forum explained that teachers are not permitted to provide any pain relief medication, not even a single tablet of paracetamol. Consequently, desperate teenage girls are forced to negotiate with each other to share pain medication. This creates a dangerous environment where students are taking unknown dosages or mixing medications without medical oversight.

Members often debate the cost-of-living crisis, yet the hidden, painful impact on teenage girls remains largely forgotten. These students asked me to remind the chamber that females make up 50 per cent of our population. Period poverty directly impacts biological women and girls, and it deserves urgent attention. Minister, it is time this government stops ignoring this hidden crisis and starts giving the biological girls and women of Victoria the resources, health support and dignity that they deserve.