Almost half of the nation says cost of living is the most important issue they face as high inflation and interest rates eat into household budgets.<\/p>\n
The new Sky News Pulse \/ YouGov poll shows price pressures that devalue Australians\u2019 buying power are suffocating the nation.<\/p>\n
About 45 per cent of respondents said cost of living was the most important issue on the 12-option list of problems facing Australia.<\/p>\n
This is four per cent higher than when Australians were asked the same question on February 26 and greatly exceeds the second-place priority of immigration – at just 10 per cent.<\/p>\n
The poll, which surveyed 1,471 voters between May 26 and June 2, also revealed that 70 per cent of Australians expect energy prices to surge over the coming year.<\/p>\n
This is a blow to Labor\u2019s green energy policy and the party\u2019s repeated promise that renewable energy will provide Australians with the cheapest energy.<\/p>\n
Families are bearing the brunt of the energy crunch as at least 75 per cent of Generation X predict higher power prices will jump over the coming 12 months.<\/p>\n
Parents were more likely than non-parents to predict energy prices will lift while 80 per cent of One Nation voters forecast a hike.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, economic concerns outside cost of living dominated the list of worries for Australians.<\/p>\n
About nine per cent of respondents said that managing the economy and government debt were the most important issue and another eight per cent selected housing affordability.<\/p>\n
However, these were only the third and fourth most selected options respectively and each trailed cost of living by more than 35 per cent.<\/p>\n
Millennials were the most likely to pick cost of living as the leading issue facing Australians, with 54 per cent of the generation selecting the option.<\/p>\n
At least 50 per cent of Australians with a mortgage picked cost of living alongside 51 per cent of renters.<\/p>\n
Outside economic struggles plaguing households, the latest Sky News Pulse also reveals One Nation has topped Labor on primary vote.<\/p>\n
One Nation lifted four per cent to a high of 29 per cent, while Labor slipped two points to 26 per cent.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s fall follows its unpopular May budget where it went back on pre-election promises not to change capital gains tax or negative gearing.<\/p>\n
The CGT proposal, which scraps the discount and replaces it with a tax on real gains, sparked outcry from business leaders and entrepreneurs who warned founders will move overseas.<\/p>\n
The Coalition has not gained Labor\u2019s disgruntled voters, despite vowing to repeal the changes, as the Opposition slipped three points to sit at 20 per cent.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s decline also comes as the Reserve Bank of Australia has hiked interest rates three times since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
This has added $272 per month in mortgage repayments for a household owing $600,000 on its 25-year loan.<\/p>\n
The central bank\u2019s rate bumps come as inflation in the year to April was 4.2 per cent \u2013 well outside the RBA\u2019s 2-3 per cent target band.<\/p>\n
Trimmed mean inflation – the middle 70 per cent of price changes – lifted to 3.4 per cent as housing costs remained elevated.<\/p>\n
Government spending was partly blamed for the May hike, in contradiction to boasting from Treasurer Jim Chalmers after the decision was handed down.<\/p>\n
“The Reserve Bank statement does not point to public spending as a factor in their decision to increase interest rates today,” Mr Chalmers told reporters in early May.<\/p>\n
“To those people that are pretending that the government’s budget is the sole driver of prices in our economy or interest rate decisions – they weren’t saying that when interest rates were cut three times.”<\/p>\n
RBA governor Michele Bullock acknowledged that government spending had made the central bank’s inflation fight more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a situation in Australia prior to the war, where we had demand above supply,\u201d Ms Bullock told reporters after handing down the hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability of the economy to supply the goods and services that were being demanded in total – including by government and by the private sector – was outstripping the ability of the economy to supply it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued:\u00a0\u201cThe extent to which government make up the shortfalls for households by giving them more money – it makes it harder to dampen demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RBA will hand down its next cash rate decision on June 16.<\/p>\n
It is widely expected to hold the cash rate at 4.35 per cent as unemployment unexpectedly climbed in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost half of the nation says cost of living is the most important issue they face as high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2324,64,63,99,2610,164,32441,270275,5465,42086,1788,60504,124606],"class_list":["post-711448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy","tag-household","tag-household-budgets","tag-inflation","tag-jim-chalmers","tag-labor","tag-one-nation","tag-price-pressures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}