MARIBYRNONG
Bill Shorten reckons there is "nothing more Australian" than buying your children's sporting gear at a local family business.
The Opposition Leader yesterday took his campaign to the suburb of Moonee Ponds in his Melbourne electorate of Maribyrnong before jetting to Darwin where Labor is searching for a new Senate candidate. 
Pressing the flesh on another street walk, Mr Shorten stopped to chat and take photos with his constituents before checking in at a well-known family business, Sims Sports, where he has shopped for the past 15-20 years.
"There is nothing more Australian than buying your runners and kids sporting gear at your local shop," he declared.
Store manager Mark Hosford said Sims Sports had been on the same street for 80 years and was a third-generation family business.
Mr Shorten said Sims Sports was in competition with online outfits and other big sporting goods chains, but was well known to the community and was an -example of the kind of business Labor would try to help if elected.
He said he would prioritise "genuine small business" to ensure they got "the assistance they need" with Labor committed to following through with the government's tax cuts for small businesses with a turnover of up to $2 million. He also posed for a photograph outside the store with three younger constituents, 17-year-old Matt Testa, Alex Nikolaou and Jessie Withington, both 16.
Mr Nikolaou, who has type one diabetes, asked Mr Shorten whether he could match Malcolm Turnbull's commitment to provide $54 million for technology to help diabetes suffers monitor their sugar levels without constant pin pricks.
"We'll follow up on that," Mr Shorten said.
He had started the day in the seat of Melbourne, held by Greens MP Adam Bandt, and committed $8m over four years -towards research into the causes of ovarian cancer and measures to improve early detection."It's a dreadful challenge and of course we have always got to think about the hereditary angle of cancer," he said.