The federal government has threatened to withdraw funding from some of Australia's biggest sporting bodies if they fail to adopt a gender-neutral travel policy.
It wants to see male and female athletes participating in major international competitions granted equal travel and accommodation conditions.
They've secured some of the greatest sporting victories of the past twelve months.
But when travelling to compete, Australia's female athletes are often seated in economy class.
Bianca Chatfield is a former Vice-Captain of the Australian Diamond's Netball Team.
She says male athletes are known to travel in a different flight class.
"We do see that with other sports and you hear it a lot of the time that the male athletes are looked after. And the female athletes are just put in economy."
The federal government wants to see changes with regard to travel to, and accommodation at, international competitions such as World Cups or world championships.
Minister for Sports, Sussan Ley, and the Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie have written to dozens of the country's top government-funded sporting organisations.
They say, in 2016, there is no defensible reason why male and female athletes should be treated differently on travel conditions.
Minister Ley says it's important that sporting bodies comply with the call for equal treatment.
"We do have the funding that we provide available as a tool to withdraw if required, if in fact we don't get compliance with this gender equality policy."
The representative body, Basketball Australia, reviewed its travel policy after public outrage in 2012, when the women's Olympic team travelled to London in premium economy and the men travelled in business class.
This disparity is still a reality for Australia's female cricketers.
The men's and women's cricket teams both travel economy domestically, but internationally the men travel in business class, while the women travel in premium economy.
Cricket Australia says it's working to resolve the issue, as international travel and accommodation are booked, and paid for, by the International Cricket Council.
The national female football team, the Matildas, went on strike last year over a pay and conditions dispute with the Football Federation of Australia.
The FFA now says it welcomes the government's announcement, and is working to improve conditions for female footballers.
But sports funding is often tied to commercial sponsorships.
An expert in sport sponsorship at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Deborah Healey, says female athletes are still lagging behind their male counterparts.
"I think that generally men's sports are more marketable or are seen to be more marketable. They attract more viewers if shown on television. So, I think sponsors are often keener to associate themselves with men's sporting activities."
Netballer Bianca Chatfield says the call for gender-neutral travel conditions should be seen as a small step towards solving an even greater inequality in professional sport.
"When you look at professional sports, all athletes no matter whether they're male or female, should be paid at a reasonable rate. If we're full-time athletes, we should be paid a full-time wage."
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