The Western Australian Government has announced it will offer public high school students free tampons and pads starting next year. It’s the last jurisdiction in Australia to join efforts to address ‘period poverty’, which can see girls miss school because they cannot afford the items. Victoria became the first state in the country to provide access to period products in public schools in 2020. South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania followed in 2021, and NSW and Queensland public schools began providing free menstrual hygiene products this year. In the ACT, free sanitary products are available in public schools, and it’s progressing legislation to provide free sanitary products to anyone who needs them. “It’s about bloody time we’ve done this in schools,” WA’s Women’s Interests Minister Simone McGurk said. Earlier this month, Scotland became the first nation in the world to give out tampons and pads to citizens requiring them.