Albury council candidate Ashley Edwards wants the city to be the first in regional Australia to provide free period products in council public toilets.
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The Albury Greens lead candidate will, if elected, push for Albury to adopt a similar initiative to what has been done in Melbourne, Sydney and a number of local councils in New Zealand and the U.K.
"I think it would be amazing if Albury could lead the way, because it's not just a city problem, it's a regional problem as well," Ms Edwards said.
"Those councils have similar dispensers to what Share the Dignity use at schools.
"People raise it being vandalised, stolen or not used ... but toilet paper is in toilets, and no one thinks about it being stolen or vandalised.
"It's just something provided as a basic public health need - so the thinking is to re-frame that to include period products as well, as just another thing that needs to be provided.
"I imagine that council staff could look at a few key sites around the city to do a trial - to see if it works and if there's community feedback."
Ms Edwards said Isobel Marshall, the 2021 Young Australian of the Year, had helped put the issue of period poverty on the public agenda, supporting the work of charities such as Share the Dignity Australia which has worked with James Fallon High School.
"Share the Dignity are doing a Dignity Drive - there will be collection points and I'm one of the volunteers who will be going around and picking them up," she said.
"They're doing some amazing work in that space ... distributing to places such as women's shelters.
"It's linked to gender equality and it might take some more women to start the conversation and make some change.
"It's women and people who menstruate who are disadvantaged if they don't have access to period products; they are the ones that can't go to work and they're the ones that can't go to school.
"They're the ones that are choosing between food and hygiene."
There are eight collection points around Albury-Wodonga for Share the Dignity's August drive.
Ms Edwards said the delay of the council elections - to December 4 - was frustrating.
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"We've done a lot of work up to this point, but I am 100 per cent behind the decision - it keeps everyone safe," she said.
"Now I've got three more months to keep talking to community about what they want to see the council achieve in the next term.
"I'm really excited to see lots of other women running."
