Though inflation has declined and unemployment remains low, one in three Australians have reported financial stress and a similar proportion believed 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.
And many do not think things will get better any time soon as more than half of Australians believed 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.
Cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek acknowledged the election would be tight.
"The polls show that it will be a close election, but we've got a really clear plan to help people with their cost-of-living pressures," she told Sunrise.
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.
However, 55 per cent of survey respondents did not believe the coalition was ready to govern.
Liberal senator Jane Hume brushed away the results and maintained "the only poll that matters is the one on election day".
"We've brought the same discipline from government into opposition ... and 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.
"Polls may say whatever it is that they say, but we knew that they were going to tighten in the lead up to the election - that's what polls do."
The Greens remained on 12 per cent, while there was no movement in support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation (seven per cent).
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suffered a fall in his approval rating as Mr Albanese extended his lead on who voters regard as preferred prime minister.
Mr Albanese increased his five-point lead in February to a nine-point margin in the latest poll with the prime minister improving two points to 47 per cent and Mr Dutton falling two points to 38 per cent.
Mr Dutton also suffered a two-point approval rating slide to 39 per cent and a two-point rise in voter dissatisfaction to 53 per cent, giving him a net negative rating of minus 14.
Meanwhile, Mr Albanese's approval rating rose four points to 41 per cent, with disapproval falling five points to 53 per cent - landing him on minus 12.
This is the first time since late last year that the Labor leader has had a better approval rating than the opposition leader.
The latest Newspoll was conducted between March 3 and 7 with 1255 voters throughout Australia.
32°C