Voters despair as economic hurdles cloud future

Australians are losing hope as economic burdens weigh on their minds, but the prime minister insists help is on the horizon.

One in three Australians has reported financial stress and a similar proportion believe their lives have worsened over the past year, pushing life satisfaction to its lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the latest Australian National University election monitoring survey found.

Many do not think things will get better soon, with more than half believing the lives of their children would be worse.

"Everyone can see the real struggle younger Australians have in getting a foot in the property market, which appears to be translating into pessimism about the future," report author and ANU professor Nicholas Biddle said.

This erosion of hope will be an important factor with voters set to head to the ballot boxes by May 17.

Pessimism reduces trust in government institutions and confidence in the federal government is at its lowest point since the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires.

One third of Australians expressed confidence in the federal government, down from half after the previous election.

Though two in three respondents were content with democracy, this does not reflect a "deep dissatisfaction" among economically stressed groups, the report warned.

The major parties' economic platforms could make all the difference as they jostle for voters, with federal election polling showing a knife's-edge difference in support.

A survey conducted for The Australian and published on Monday has the coalition leading Labor 51 per cent to 49 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis - the same result as the previous Newspoll.

Primary support for both major parties has lifted, with Labor on 32 per cent and the coalition on 39 per cent. This is in line with Labor's result at the last election, but represents gains of more than three percentage points for the coalition.

Though 55 per cent of survey respondents did not believe the coalition was ready to govern, Liberal senator Jane Hume brushed off the results.

"We will go to this election with a suite of policies that will deal with what's important to everyday Australians," she told Sky News.

In recent days, both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have forgone campaign efforts to focus on flood recovery after ex-tropical cyclone Alfred battered Queensland and northern NSW.

Mr Dutton has accused government ministers of "looking for political opportunity" following reports he attended a fundraiser in Sydney as his electorate prepared for the natural disaster, but the prime minister dismissed the suggestions.

"I've been getting on with doing this job ... giving support to people in a totally non-political way," Mr Albanese told reporters in Lismore.

The prime minister insisted his government would continue to strengthen the economy when it delivers a budget on March 25.

Labor received a much-needed confidence boost over the weekend after a favourable result at the West Australian state election.

Though the party expected some swing against it after a particularly strong performance at the state's previous poll, its losses did not translate to coalition gains, Monash University politics expert Zareh Ghazarian said.

But this result does not mean Labor can rest on its laurels.

"The message is clear," Dr Ghazarian said.

"Australians are increasingly open to supporting non-major candidates which means that the major parties will have to work extremely hard to not only secure the support of their traditional voters, but also attract new voters who are seemingly unimpressed with their performances."

The latest Newspoll was conducted between March 3 and 7 with 1255 voters throughout Australia.