Hobart could be the first city in Australia to provide free sanitary items in public bathrooms if a proposal by a councillor gets off the ground.

Holly Ewin says sanitary items are no different from toilet paper. ( ABC News: Peter Curtis )

Key points: Councillor Holly Ewin has put forward a motion to look at putting free sanitary items in council-maintained bathrooms.

Councillor Holly Ewin has put forward a motion to look at putting free sanitary items in council-maintained bathrooms. Ms Ewin says the council provides toilet paper for free, and feminine hygiene products "aren't any different".

Ms Ewin says the council provides toilet paper for free, and feminine hygiene products "aren't any different". Other council members aren't convinced it should be Hobart City that funds the idea.

Councillor Holly Ewin has put forward a motion to the Parks and Recreation committee to do a report into providing feminine hygiene dispensers around the city, and she said she wants a trial of the machines up and running in the next couple of months.

"I think women's bodies have been stigmatised and treated as abnormal and inconvenient, and council provides other necessities like toilet paper and soaps in bathrooms and for me, this is no different," she said.

She said the dispensers, which cost around $1,000 each from the United States, are important to improving the accessibility of sanitary items

"At the moment, there isn't anything … we just need to normalise the fact that people need these, so let's have them available in bathrooms."

The North Ayrshire council in Scotland set up a similar initiative last year.

In the motion, Ms Ewin said "no level of government in Australia provides or subsidises any products at all".

Problem 'much greater than ever imagined'

If the motion passes, the report would look at how many dispensers would be required, how much it would cost, and whether the items would be completely free or heavily discounted.

Founder of national period poverty charity Share The Dignity, Rochelle Courtenay, said it was a "fantastic idea".

Share the Dignity founder Rochelle Courtenay has helped roll out free sanitary item vending machines to poverty-stricken areas. ( ABC News: Col Kerr )

The charity puts their own vending machines in poverty-stricken areas across Australia including domestic violence shelters, schools and areas with high homeless populations.

The machines only dispense items every 10 minutes, which is designed to prevent people from taking too many unnecessarily.

She said the problem of accessing the products is a major issue.

"The problem is much greater than I ever could have imagined."

"Poverty is on such a rise and even this week we were sent a message saying 'I just don't have any money left over for sanitary items so I'm using my kid's nappies and cutting them up' and she's not homeless."

"There are so many women who just can't afford the basic necessity."

Ms Courtenay said it has health implications, with some people leaving tampons in "for far too long", putting themselves at risk of the potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.

She said that also extends to mental health.

"There are mental health issues associated with not having access to sanitary items, the anxiety they feel, some women it's the smell because they don't have that access and then they're isolated."

She said the problem also affected school-aged children, with 20 per cent of girls in Australia missing school because they don't have access to sanitary items.

Ms Ewin said the issue would have been acted upon much sooner if it hadn't been for "men running the joint for such a long time".

"They don't have to deal with it. I think it's the same reason there was GST on sanitary products in the first place when there wasn't on sunscreen and condoms. It's just structural sexism."

Questions over council footing the bill

Alderman Damon Thomas said although the idea is good, he questioned why the city had to pay for the service.

Alderman Damon Thomas questions why the council needs to fund the idea. ( ABC News: Peter Curtis )

"If we go outside a pharmacy, it'd be very unlikely you'll find someone providing you with ten dollars, to buy something you need, sanitary products or not, so why is the city being asked to fund it, as opposed to funding places where people clearly don't have enough income," he said.

"I'm not in any way demeaning or undermining the value of that contribution, but I will need to be convinced, as will the rest of the council that the council… that they will fund it."



"I don't want to poo-poo it, I just want to make sure it's considered and rationally debated."

Ms Ewin said the council has to step up as other levels of government have not acted on the issue.

"I do believe these products should be supplied for free anyway, and I don't think that's necessarily a council responsibility, but as if the state or federal governments are going to do anything on this under the Liberals."

