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500 More Hours Of Women's Sport On TV: Labor

Bill Shorten vows to give women's sport more air time.
Sport is taking centre stage in the election campaign on Sunday.
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Sport is taking centre stage in the election campaign on Sunday.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says a Labor government would ramp up the amount of women's sport on television, promising to broadcast an extra 500 hours on free-to-air TV.

Speaking on Sunday, Shorten said female athletes deserved the same exposure as their male counterparts and insisted that Labor was committed to increasing television time for women's sport.

"A Labor government if elected will fund an extra 500 hours of live coverage of women's sport on television," he told reporters in Canberra.

"We are doing this because we believe that our women athletes deserve comparable coverage to our male athletes."

The announcement is part of a reported $21 million Labor commitment for sport made as Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gear up for Sunday night's leaders' debate.

The coalition is expected to pledge a further $60 million for a scheme providing structured sporting activities in schools.

Shorten said Labor's TV plan was about honouring female excellence in sport.

"We are doing this because we believe that our women athletes deserve comparable coverage to our male athletes. We have a great sporting story of Australian women athletes," Shorten said.

"It is a great and wonderful story, but at the moment, what happens is of all the sporting coverage on television, only 7 percent is of women."

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