Australia's biggest sporting bodies have backed moves from the Federal Government to pull funding from sports which don't adopt a gender-neutral travel policy.
But sports minister Sussan Ley says it's not a "line in the sand" ruling and only applies for teams travelling to major international events, such as world championships or World Cups, not qualifiers and friendlies.
Ley and Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie have written to the top 30 funded organisations on the issue, warning there is no defensible reason why male and female athletes should be treated differently on travel conditions.
"This is not a name and shame exercise. This is a strongly worded request ... to remind the sports that the significant funding that comes to them courtesy of the taxpayer does sometimes have some strings attached," Ley told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
Many appear to have taken the hint.
Football Federation Australia, which was last year engaged in an ugly standoff with the players' union over equal pay and conditions for women, says it understands and agrees with the ASC.
However, travel and accommodation for both men's and women's World Cups is booked and paid for by FIFA and the local organising committee of each event, not the national governing body. It is the same case for cricket with the ICC.
"As we see future growth in women's football we will continue to improve the Matildas conditions in conjunction with funding of the W-League, elite pathways and grassroots to ensure the Matildas program is underpinned for generations to come," FFA chief David Gallop said.
Matildas veteran Kathryn Gill, also the player relations executive for Professional Footballers Australia, welcomed the government's move.
"These measures are long overdue and are an important step forward in addressing the issue of gender equality, which to date has not been tackled in a meaningful way by most sports," she said.
The Australian women's rugby league team, the Jillaroos, had to pay for flights and accommodation out of their own pocket right up until the 2013 World Cup, when the NRL stepped in to cover costs for the first time.
Since then, men's and women's teams have been treated "exactly the same", according to an NRL spokesperson, as is the case for Hockey Australia, which operates on a value-for-money basis and doesn't differentiate based on gender.
Cricket Australia also said it was committed to improving the conditions of Australia's world champion women cricketers.
"Addressing discrepancies between the class of air travel for male and female cricketers is another important issue that we are committed to resolving," a CA spokesperson said.
