has 72 per cent of respondents saying “the cost and standard of living” is the most important issue for the federal government to focus on this year, up three percentage points since February.
Among voters who nominated housing as their top priority, 14 per cent said there was not enough housing stock available in the market, 11 per cent said house prices were too high in Australia and 10 per cent nominated rising rent costs. “Obviously, we’re always looking at what we can do to help people with the cost of living and we’ll continue to do that at every budget as the prime minister has outlined previously,” she said.In the poll, housing and accommodation ranked as the second most pressing issue at 42 per cent, ahead of health and social care at 28 per cent and managing the economy at 26 per cent. The environment and climate change, and crime and social order were nominated by 23 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and federal Labor gained 3 points on which party is considered best placed to manage the issue of cost and standards of living. The poll found Labor had significant leads on two of the top five issues nominated by voters, including health and social care, and the environment and climate change.