Sydney-based creative Mia Lethbridge has a bone to pick with the federal government, so she’s created a wry parody of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell’s 2004 hit ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ to protest the so-called “tampon tax”, featuring none other than the PM’s sister.
As Mashable notes, when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was controversially introduced in Australia back in 2000, items like tampons and sanitary pads were hit with a 10 percent price hike after the government deemed them to be “non-essential” products.
A call to end the “tampon tax” has been gaining momentum in recent months. First, uni student Subeta Vimalarajah created a petition titled ‘Stop Taxing My Period‘ and now Lethbridge has unveiled a crafty music video to protest the tax burden.
“I think Australia has a pretty outdated attitude around periods,” Lethbridge told Mashable Australia. “I feel like the tax is reflective of this attitude. We are supposed to be a progressive country, yet here we are taxing menstruating Australians!”
The clip, which readers can check out below, deftly parodies the iconic video for Snoop and Pharrell’s hit, featuring tampon spray-paint stencils and various other tongue-in-cheek props, as well as the aforementioned appearance from Tony Abbott’s sister, Christine Forster.
As Daily Life reports, despite being a fellow Liberal Party politician on Sydney City Council, Forster has previously spoken out about the issues on which she disagrees with her brother, including most famously, gay marriage.
Lethbridge told Mashable the otherwise-pro-GST Forster “doesn’t see the fairness in taxing some items and not others – especially when those items are as important as our tampons”. See Forster sporting a hard rap glare in the clip below.
