Cost-of-living has emerged as the most pressing question this election as almost two-thirds of voters described it as the top priority for the next government in a new poll from the Australian National University.
Data has also shown that Labor remains ahead of the Coalition as voters begin to lock in their decision ahead of May 21.
The ANUpoll study, published on Friday, has found more than 64 per cent of Australians think the high cost of living needs to be urgently addressed.
More than 3500 voters responded to the survey, undertaken in April, asking them what the next government's priorities should be across more than 20 policy areas. It found the second highest priority was fixing the aged care system, with 60 per cent of voters highlighting this as a key issue.
Cost-of-living has emerged as the main flashpoint for both major parties as the election campaign focuses on inflation, interest rates and wage growth, after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate for the first time in 11 years, to 0.35 per cent, with more increases expected.
With the inflation rate at 5.1 per cent, Study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said the party who could address increased costs and stagnant wages would be in good stead to win the election.
The other top five priorities among voters included strengthening the nation's economy (54 per cent), reducing the cost of health care (54 per cent) and dealing with global climate change (53 per cent).
Professor Biddle said high living costs were "high on the minds" of most voters and outranked all other major policy considerations.
"Interestingly, we also found that this was a view held by people who said they would vote for Labor, for people who said they would vote for the Coalition, and for those who weren't planning on voting for either party," he said.
"For Coalition voters, 60.8 per cent said this was the highest priority. Among Labor voters it was even higher, with 68.8 per cent saying the same."
The paper found issues relating to immigration were deemed the least important, and were only of concern to 22 per cent of voters. In addition, only 27 per cent of voters thought fixing the budget was a top priority.
Professor Biddle said the latest survey outlined Australians' voting intentions, with Labor currently in a "pretty strong election winning position".
"We found that there wasn't any significant change in the number of people who said they would vote for the Coalition - 31.2 per cent in April compared to 31.7 per cent in January," he said.
"We also found there was also a small drop in the number of people who said they'd vote for Labor, with 34.3 per cent saying they would in April compared to 36.3 per cent in January.
"Meanwhile, the Greens saw a slight increase in support, increasing from 14.2 per cent of voters giving the party their vote in January to 16.2 per cent in April."
The professor said while many voters changed their minds on a monthly basis during the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past three months the numbers had stabilised.
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In a Treasurers debate at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Labor's candidate for treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition was ignoring Australia's "cost of living crisis".
He said the Liberal Party has "no idea of the pain that inflicts on ordinary Australians, and they have no plan to deal with it. If they do, that plan isn't working".
Meanwhile, Mr Frydenberg raised questions about the sources of funding for Labor's spending promises on programs such as foreign aid, parental leave and childcare.
"My greatest fear is that if Labor got over the line, they would revert to their natural instincts to tax more and to spend more, instincts that were on full display when they thought they had the election in the bag last time," he said.
The Treasurer and Scott Morrison have both put increased cost of living down to international factors, saying the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine were the main drivers.
