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Speaker 1: Already and this is this is the daily This is

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Speaker 1: the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,

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Speaker 2: the fifth of August.

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Speaker 1: Sum Sam, i'm emma.

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Speaker 3: More than three in four UNI and TAFE students have

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Speaker 3: struggled to pay for period products. According to new national data.

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Speaker 3: Not for profit organization Share the Dignity collected data from

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Speaker 3: nearly one hundred and fifty four thousand people for its

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Speaker 3: Bloody Big survey. Nearly half of respondents reported having a

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Speaker 3: medical condition relating to their period, including ENDO, sixty three

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Speaker 3: percent have a diagnosed iron deficiency, and ninety one percent

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Speaker 3: of respondents have missed out on work because of period pain.

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Speaker 3: And that's just the beginning. In today's deep dive, I'm

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Speaker 3: speaking with the founder of Share the Dignity to unpack

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Speaker 3: the report. So it's findings, what they tell us about

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Speaker 3: the state of play in Australia and what needs to change.

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Speaker 3: But first, Sam, what's making headlines.

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Speaker 2: Foreign Minister Pennywong has warned Australians in Lebanon to quote

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Speaker 2: leave immediately while commercial flights are available. Lebanon's classification on

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Speaker 2: defat's Smart travel Er Service remains that do not travel

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Speaker 2: as quote, the security situation could deteriorate rapidly throughout Lebanon

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Speaker 2: with little or known notice. The US, UK, Canada, France,

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Speaker 2: Sweden and Jordan have all issued similar notices to their citizens. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 2: the US said it would boost its military presence in

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Speaker 2: the region in preparation for a possible Iranian attack against Israel,

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Speaker 2: which Iran has vowed to launch after Hamas's political leader

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Speaker 2: was assassinated in Iran last week.

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Speaker 1: Australian Federal Police and Border Force officials have intercepted a

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Speaker 1: shipment of nearly one ton of meth fis htamin with

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Speaker 1: an estimated street value of eight hundred and twenty eight

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Speaker 1: million dollars. Officers were led to the hall after receiving

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Speaker 1: information from Homeland Security in the US, as well as

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Speaker 1: an anonymous tip off call to crime stoppers. The drugs

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Speaker 1: had been concealed in industrial machinery parts and were being

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Speaker 1: sent from the US to a furniture store in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: A thirty one year old man has been arrested and

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Speaker 1: will face court in October.

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Speaker 2: More than ninety people have been arrested across the UK

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Speaker 2: after coordinated fire Right protests turned violent. The largest protests

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Speaker 2: were seen in Hull, Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester. In some areas,

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Speaker 2: police officers were injured and a number of buildings set

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Speaker 2: on fire. New PM Keir Starmer said quote the right

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Speaker 2: to freedom of expression and the violent disorder we have

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Speaker 2: seen are two very different things. Protests were originally sparked

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Speaker 2: after false claims spread online that the man accused of

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Speaker 2: killing three children at a Taylor Swift themed dance class

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Speaker 2: in the UK region of Southport on Monday was an

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Speaker 2: asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boach.

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Speaker 2: Starmer has announced quote a national response to the civil disorder,

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Speaker 2: including new abilities for police forces across the country to

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Speaker 2: share intelligence and expanded use of facial recognition.

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Speaker 3: And today's good news. Researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide

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Speaker 3: say they are quote on the cusp of revolutionary breakthroughs

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Speaker 3: in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It's thanks to

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Speaker 3: research on circular RNAs, which can be used to kill

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Speaker 3: cancer cells by targeting a patient's immune system. Scientists hope

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Speaker 3: the findings will improve cancer treatment within the next decade,

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Speaker 3: and said circular RNAs will play an important role in

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Speaker 3: cancer detection and diagnosis in the future before it can

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Speaker 3: be detected by an MRI. More than one hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty thousand people took part in the latest Share the

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Speaker 3: Dignity server. Now that's Australia's largest body of data on periods.

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Speaker 3: The survey went deep into what it calls the core

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Speaker 3: factors and data that contribute to high levels of period

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Speaker 3: poverty and period shame. To talk through its extensive findings,

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Speaker 3: I'm joined today by the founder of Share the Dignity,

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Speaker 3: Rochelle Courtney.

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Speaker 1: Rochelle, Welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I love to talk about periods.

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Speaker 3: Who doesn't and that's exactly what we are talking about today,

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Speaker 3: the Bloody Big Survey. Before we get into the findings

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Speaker 3: from this latest report, what is the survey, what's the

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Speaker 3: scope of it and what are the kind of goals

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Speaker 3: of this one.

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Speaker 5: The Bloody Big Survey came about back in twenty twenty

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Speaker 5: one when we did our very first survey. We had

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Speaker 5: one hundred and twenty five thousand respondents and we found

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Speaker 5: out that one in five people were going through period

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Speaker 5: poverty and that is when somebody is unable to afford

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Speaker 5: the very basic essentials, So we decided that we would

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Speaker 5: do it every three years. When we've about the bloody

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Speaker 5: Big survey in twenty twenty four, we had one hundred

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Speaker 5: and fifty three thousand responses.

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Speaker 4: So look what we've found is alarming.

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Speaker 5: To be honest, I thought that the state of period

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Speaker 5: poverty would have gotten better, but it has stayed the

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Speaker 5: same in some areas and gotten worse in others.

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Speaker 3: How do you compare these findings overall? You know, you

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Speaker 3: say you're concerned that things have gone backwards or not

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Speaker 3: made progress between twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think that is?

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Speaker 5: When we bought about the survey in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 5: we advocated that access to period products should be available

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Speaker 5: for any girl participating in school, and so there has

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Speaker 5: been provision of period products in all high schools in

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Speaker 5: Australia in most states and territories, and then some in

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Speaker 5: primary schools. So I figured that the problem would have

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Speaker 5: lessons a little, and I.

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Speaker 4: Am shocked to see that the problem is the same.

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Speaker 5: And for those who are in higher education in and universities,

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Speaker 5: that problem had got worse. So we're going to allow

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Speaker 5: kids to go to high school and give them period products,

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Speaker 5: and then we're going to send them off on their

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Speaker 5: really toughest journey where they've probably just started to move

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Speaker 5: out of home, they're working two jobs, they're studying, and

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Speaker 5: they don't have access to period products. And that's a

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Speaker 5: real flaw that I hope to get fixed before we

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Speaker 5: do them survey in twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 3: So even though we have had progress in terms of

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Speaker 3: access to period products in schools, there's this kind of

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Speaker 3: a forgotten sector of young people in our society.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, and this is not a one person solution. This

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Speaker 5: is about how we can all work together to make

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Speaker 5: sure that no person misses out on a day of education,

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Speaker 5: no matter what level they're in, and I'm talking about

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Speaker 5: making sure that it's available in every primary school as well.

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Speaker 5: When these stats show us that girls as young as eight,

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Speaker 5: nine and ten are getting their period, then we need

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Speaker 5: to be providing period products, and we need to be

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Speaker 5: making sure that there is a sanitary bin in toilets

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Speaker 5: at that young age and that education. I think that

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Speaker 5: was one of the other really shocking stats that we

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Speaker 5: found in the survey was that only fifteen percent of

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Speaker 5: people felt like they were adequately educated around menstruation.

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Speaker 4: We're talking about periods.

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Speaker 5: We're talking about something that affects us every single month,

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Speaker 5: and I would hate to even think about if we

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Speaker 5: asked men and boys whether they were educated about menstruation. Now,

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Speaker 5: those little boys that are not educated end up being

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Speaker 5: somebody's father, boss, friend, colleague, and they have no understanding

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Speaker 5: around menstruation. And that's what I really want to change

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Speaker 5: in the next three years.

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Speaker 3: So it's not only the findings on period poverty access

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Speaker 3: to period products. We're also talking about a need for

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Speaker 3: reform in the education system itself to help with awareness

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Speaker 3: and understanding, not only access to those physical products.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, I believe that menstrual equity is around equal access

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Speaker 5: to period products, whether you can afford them or not.

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Speaker 5: So even if you've had an act, you know, I've

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Speaker 5: had seven million period accidents in my lifetime. Whether I'm

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Speaker 5: at sport with my girls and they're at netball, or

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Speaker 5: whether I'm at work, there should be access to period

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Speaker 5: products in a bathroom in a dignified way.

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Speaker 3: That idea of dignity in access to period products is

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Speaker 3: a really interesting one one that I want to hone

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Speaker 3: in a little more on. There's this statistic from the

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Speaker 3: latest survey that's found seventy seven percent of tavin UNI

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Speaker 3: students found it difficult to buy products. And the other

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Speaker 3: statistic around improvising period products.

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Speaker 1: What does that mean?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the improvisation is what is exceptionally scary.

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Speaker 4: So if they're using.

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Speaker 5: A tampon for more than four hours, we're at risk

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Speaker 5: of toxic shock.

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Speaker 4: It's a health issue, right, but it's also like a

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Speaker 4: mental health issue.

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Speaker 5: Have you ever had to be sitting in a meeting

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Speaker 5: and be thinking about whether you need to be changing

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Speaker 5: your patent but you're not concentrating on what you need

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Speaker 5: to be concentrating on. That's an anxiety issue that no

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Speaker 5: woman should ever have to face.

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Speaker 4: And so the fear of leaking.

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Speaker 5: If you look at the other stats, fifty five percent

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Speaker 5: of missing work because of their period. The highest reason

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Speaker 5: they're missing it is because of fear of leaking. If

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Speaker 5: you're talking about sport, sixty eight percent of girls missing

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Speaker 5: out on sport, it's a fear of leaking.

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Speaker 4: It all comes back to a solution of provision of.

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Speaker 5: Period products in a bathroom, where that then takes away

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Speaker 5: that massive fear.

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Speaker 3: What are the kind of repercussions of the scale of

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Speaker 3: women missing out on school and work, you know, not

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Speaker 3: just emotionally physically for their futures. Why should people care

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Speaker 3: about the economic impact of this too?

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Speaker 5: Nine point six billion dollars is the loss to the

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Speaker 5: Australian economy because of periods in Australia. And if we

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Speaker 5: came back to the whole fact around menstrual equity, it

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Speaker 5: is about provision of period products, It is about education,

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Speaker 5: and it is about removing the shame and stigma. So

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Speaker 5: what we're asking for is that we have now got

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Speaker 5: an education hub on our website. So if you're a

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Speaker 5: dad with a daughter and you have never been educated,

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Speaker 5: there's a downloadable flyer there for you to sit and

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Speaker 5: have a conversation with your daughter, actually educate yourself. If

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Speaker 5: you're a brother and you've got sisters, then you can

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Speaker 5: educate yourself. And there's also a piece around workplace what

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Speaker 5: does that mean for you.

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Speaker 4: As a boss or a colleague to know?

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Speaker 5: And that kind of information has never really been readily available,

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Speaker 5: So we're asking people now we know better, we need

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Speaker 5: to do better, and so provision of period products in

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Speaker 5: workplaces should be a given.

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Speaker 3: So the first time you ran this survey, twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 3: we were, of course at the start of this kind

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Speaker 3: of cost of living crisis we now find ourselves in

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Speaker 3: now that we are well and truly in the thick

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Speaker 3: of that crisis. What did the latest survey find out

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Speaker 3: about those pressures?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think in this survey we really wanted to

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Speaker 5: know because we'd already been hearing that period poverty wasn't

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Speaker 5: just affecting those that living below the poverty line, which

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Speaker 5: is why we put the household income into the survey.

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Speaker 5: So we had over four hundred responses of people in

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Speaker 5: the two hundred thousand bracket, and we still found that

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Speaker 5: they were living through period poverty. And that is because

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Speaker 5: probably that mortgages are so much higher, the cost of

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Speaker 5: electricity and fuel, and unfortunately, women are putting their health

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Speaker 5: at the back burner, you know, instead of putting food

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Speaker 5: on the table, and they're probably not giving up the

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Speaker 5: things for their children, but they're certainly giving them.

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Speaker 4: Up for themselves.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that was certainly a start that surprised

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Speaker 3: me in the survey that you know, these quote unquote

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Speaker 3: high income groups were also experiencing such high rates of

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Speaker 3: period poverty in the cost of living crisis. But as well,

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Speaker 3: you know, as I'm sure the last survey found disadvantaged

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Speaker 3: groups are still worse off when it comes to period poverty.

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Speaker 3: What did the survey find about trends in disadvantage groups

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three?

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Speaker 5: I was summarize what is happening in the transgender, Indigenous

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Speaker 5: menstrual howth those with a disability? They're all sitting in

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Speaker 5: that high seventy to eighty percent who cannot afford the

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Speaker 5: very basic of essentials. That's not okay? What would have

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Speaker 5: happened if Share the Dignity wasn't around? This collection will

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Speaker 5: collect our five millions packet of period products, do you

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Speaker 5: know what I mean?

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Speaker 4: It makes me really.

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Speaker 5: Sad that we've come so far, and I feel like

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Speaker 5: we've done a really good job, but that's the stat

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Speaker 5: that's coming out of our survey.

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Speaker 4: It hurts my heart. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of people will be shocked to

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Speaker 3: know that a country like Australia that we consider to

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Speaker 3: be you know, so wealthy, so lucky, that so many

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Speaker 3: people could be struggling to afford the very basics every month.

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Speaker 3: I did want to zero in a little bit on

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Speaker 3: postcodes because I know that was a new element of

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Speaker 3: your data collection this time around. So what did you

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Speaker 3: find out about the locations of people struggling the most

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Speaker 3: and why was that something you decided to include this time.

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Speaker 5: I think it was really important for us to capture

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Speaker 5: the post codes. When we did the survey the first time,

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Speaker 5: we just simply asked people what state they lived in.

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Speaker 5: So finding out which postcodes the problem was greater in

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Speaker 5: and lesser in will help us to work with each

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Speaker 5: council region. And I believe that it is the council's

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Speaker 5: role to help us to ensure that there is menstrual

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Speaker 5: equity for their constituents.

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Speaker 4: Right So for.

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Speaker 5: Us now, it's really important to go back through the

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Speaker 5: five hundred plus councils in Australia and to work with

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Speaker 5: every single one of them by looking at what does

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Speaker 5: the state of menstrual equity look like in their council

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Speaker 5: region and what is it that they want it to

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Speaker 5: look like in the next three years.

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Speaker 3: What can we do in terms of immediate reform. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's discussion around how remote First Nations communities have faced

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Speaker 3: some of the highest prices in terms of what it

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Speaker 3: costs for them to buy packet of pads you know,

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Speaker 3: I've heard twenty dollars for example, compared to around seven

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Speaker 3: dollars in metropolitan cities. What can we do to change

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Speaker 3: that now so that it's a different conversation in three

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Speaker 3: is that we're having when the next report comes out?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I believe that everybody knows their local counselor download

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Speaker 5: this report and send it to them and sit down

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Speaker 5: and have a conversation with them. This is about how

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Speaker 5: we all play a role in ensuring menstru equity in

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Speaker 5: the country right. I have already met with the federal

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Speaker 5: Minister for Education because there needs to be an educational reform.

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Speaker 5: I have met with our federal Minister for Sport, for women,

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Speaker 5: for health. I have tried to meet with every sports organization,

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Speaker 5: so Football Australia, Tennis Australia, Rugby League Australia, all of

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Speaker 5: the different organizations, because I don't believe that menstruation should

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Speaker 5: hinder any girl playing sport, and so what does that

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Speaker 5: look like in each one of those codes for sport,

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Speaker 5: use your voice to advocate.

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Speaker 4: It's about having the conversation.

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Speaker 5: I don't believe that there's a person in Australia who

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Speaker 5: wouldn't be empathetic to hearing that another woman is using

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Speaker 5: socks or newspaper or waded up toilet paper to do

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Speaker 5: with their period.

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Speaker 3: You touched on sport there, and I did want to

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Speaker 3: talk about that. You know, the Olympics are on right now,

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Speaker 3: and periods in sport is actually something I've been thinking

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Speaker 3: about more and more, you know, watching these athletes at

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Speaker 3: the elite level and thinking about, oh, god, imagine if

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Speaker 3: you had your period and you were doing this. Do

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Speaker 3: you feel like maybe it's all a little bit too

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Speaker 3: behind closed doors at the moment. Do you think there

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Speaker 3: needs to be more conversation around periods in sport?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, that is a really good question, because I also

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Speaker 5: think periods have been a topic of conversation that no

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Speaker 5: one ever talks about. Like we had a female prime minister.

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Speaker 5: Did you ever hear her talk about, oh, and on god, today, I've.

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Speaker 4: Got my period.

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Speaker 5: Have we ever heard anyone in politics ever say, you

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Speaker 5: know what today, I'm just doing it tough.

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Speaker 4: I've got my period.

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Speaker 1: I know, but can you imagine the stigma then that

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Speaker 1: would surround them?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 5: But how do we We can't break that stigma if

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Speaker 5: we don't have that open conversation. So yes, while the

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Speaker 5: Olympics are on, it'd be amazing for somebody to get

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Speaker 5: their period while competing and say, you know what, not

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Speaker 5: having a great day because I've got my period. Until

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Speaker 5: people are brave enough to have those conversations, we won't

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Speaker 5: sing real change.

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Speaker 3: Wow, Rochelle, thank you so so much for your time today.

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Speaker 3: I just want to finish on maybe a more hopeful

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Speaker 3: note and ask you, you know, in three years time

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Speaker 3: you've met with all the lawmakers in the country and

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Speaker 3: everyone is one over and convinced, what is your goal

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Speaker 3: for the next survey your hopes and dreams.

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Speaker 4: So I have this movie that plays in my head.

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Speaker 4: That's what I always say.

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Speaker 5: I have a movie that plays in my head that

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Speaker 5: in every library in Australia, that every council has installed

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Speaker 5: a vending machine, that provision of period products are available

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Speaker 5: in every place that somebody gets an education, so whether

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Speaker 5: that be primary, high school, tafe, university, apprenticeships, and that

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Speaker 5: provision of period products are absolutely accessible in every hospital.

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Speaker 4: And then we've had an.

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Speaker 5: Education reform where boys and girls are educated from as

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Speaker 5: little as grateful workplace must.

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Speaker 4: Be providing period products. So you will be in a

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Speaker 4: rare workplace.

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Speaker 5: If you don't not asking for much, right, that's my goal,

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Speaker 5: that's my movie.

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Speaker 3: I'll be at the premiere.

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Speaker 2: Thanks much for joining us on the Daily Os today.

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Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this podcast, it would mean so much

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Speaker 2: to us. If you press follow, if you're watching it

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Speaker 2: over on YouTube, if you're listening to it on Spotify

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Speaker 2: these platforms that you really like what you're hearing. Will

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Speaker 2: be back again with another episode tomorrow morning. My name

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Speaker 2: is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkotin

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Speaker 2: woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this

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Speaker 2: podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigol people

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Speaker 2: and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island

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Speaker 2: and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples

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Speaker 2: of these countries, both past and present.