Surfer Lucy Small made headlines earlier this year when she called out the inequality between the men's and women’s prizemoney at a longboarding competition on the northern beaches.
Small’s stance prompted Surfing Australia to mandate all associated clubs offer equal prizemoney to both genders in competitions.
Not satisfied with helping to bring change to her sport, Small has now set her sights on a bigger challenge – teaming up with journalist Kate Allman to launch Equal Pay for Equal Play NSW.
The campaign aims to ensure equality in prizemoney by making it a pre-condition of consideration for government funding to sporting organisations.
Allman tells Sporting News she felt compelled to act after speaking to Small following her speech at the Curly MalJam Pro in April.
"It made me mad because this was a year in which the World Surf League agreed to pay women the same prizemoney as men," Allman said.
"Particularly in a situation like surfing where people are riding the same waves on the same day, it just highlighted to me that there’s still such an ingrained issue with sport at a community level."
A one-off sporting competition doesn't meet any of the criteria covered by the Sex Discrimination Act, leading to situations like the one Small drew attention to.
Allman said they took inspiration from a successful campaign in the States when deciding to launch the petition.
"Women in California had campaigned against what they saw as unfairness at a surf competition at Maverick's," Allman said
"Women were charging these massive waves at the same time as men and being paid less prizemoney.
"In 2019 there was a new law passed that said anyone competing in sport or athletic competitions where there’s a men’s and women’s division in a comparative situation have to be paid the same.
"I thought if they can do that maybe we can do something similar."
The Equal Pay for Equal Play NSW petition is aiming for 20,000 signatures and already has the support of MP Jo Haylen.
"What if we asked the government to consider, as a pre-condition of awarding sporting grants and funding the government offers to community clubs and sporting associations, what if they had to show that they have equal prizemoney, fair and equitable opportunities for women to compete, play, train or even work in the sports club," Allman said.
"At the moment there’s nothing stopping sporting clubs from doing things like paying people different prizemoney or there’s nothing holding them to account to even think about it.
"We thought maybe the only way we’re going to do this is get enough signatures on a petition to force the government to debate it.
"Once you get 20,000 signatures on an e-petition, the government must discuss it in Parliament."
Several high-profile female athletes such as Chloe Dalton and Alicia Eva have already thrown their support by the campaign.
While only available to New South Wales residents, hopes are high the petition will kickstart similar pushes around the country.
"Lucy said to me, ‘Strap in, buckle up the seat belt, because this is just the beginning,'" Allman added.
"At the moment we’re just targeting New South Wales because sports grants to community clubs are largely distributed by the state government, so we can have an impact here.
"Hopefully if this gets up in NSW we could be a leader for other states.
"We’re not asking to take money away from men - it’s not a he versus she thing, it’s a human thing.
"We’re just asking for clubs to hold up a mirror and keep track of how their including women as well as men."