On the 12th of June we had a reply from Judith Collins after the letter attached to the petition was sent to her. Below is her letter quoted with an attatched screenshot: "Dear Rebecca and Melanie Your email of 24 May 2017 to the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon Paula Bennett, and the Minister of Health, Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman, has been referred to me, as Minister of Revenue, for reply. I note your idea to remove good and services tax (GST) from feminine sanitary products. Thank you for sharing your views and providing the link to the petition you arranged. I am always encouraged when young adults take an interest and engage in issues they feel strongly about. GST in New Zealand is designed to apply to the widest possible range of good and services provided to New Zealand consumers. This means that GST taxes people on what they 'consume', which allows the tax to be as fair and as simple as possible. People often have different views about the types of goods and services that should be exempt from GST. However, allowing exemptions for some products or services would lead to request for exemptions on other items. For example, although sanitary products are an essential health item for most women, there are many other products that people purchase every day that are essential for their health or wellbeing. Allowing further exemptions to GST could make the tax lease efficient, make GST rulers harder to follow and increase administration costs. The revenue collected from GST and other taxes allows the Government to fund its commitments to education and social welfare, as well ask important services such as healthcare, hospitals and policing. Exempting certain items from GST would result in a loss of revenue that could result in tax increases in other areas. Therefore there are no plans to exempt feminine sanitary products from GST at this time. Thank you again for your suggestion. I wish you all the best with you studies. Yours sincerely Hon Judith Collins Minister of Revenue"