What the major parties' cost-of-living election pledges mean for you

Australia Broadcast Center

02-05-2025

In an election fought largely on kitchen table issues, Labor and the Coalition are each highlighting the policies they say will best relieve cost-of-living pressures for households.
With early voting underway and a quarter of voters already having cast their ballot, Labor and the Coalition have laid out the bulk of their pitches should they win the May 3 federal election.
From health to petrol, housing to tax, there's a laundry list of promises costing billions of dollars.
Here's what the major parties are offering you.
Election essentials:
Find out where your
Paying less tax or paying less for fuel?
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has visited more than a dozen petrol stations to hammer home his point: petrol will be cheaper under a Coalition government.
"It's a 25 cent a litre reduction in fuel from day one,"
he said.
The measure would temporarily halve the tax on fuel, also known as the fuel excise, which the Coalition says will save the average consumer about $14 per tank, or just over $700 a year for those who fill up their car about once a week.
Peter Dutton says the Coalition's fuel excise will ease pressure on drivers.
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ABC News: Matt Roberts
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For the average Australian, which ABS figures show use about half a tank of fuel per week, the saving would be closer to $7 per week.
The 12-month policy comes at a cost of $6 billion to government coffers.
While the Coalition's offering the 12-month discount on fuel, it's also vowed to reverse legislated tax cuts passed by Labor on the eve of the election.
Those two "modest but meaningful" tax cuts by Labor would hand about $5 a week back to taxpayers from July 2026 and a total $10 a week back from July 2027.
It'll mean the average worker gets just over $268 dollars extra in their pocket in the first year and $536 each year after that, costing the federal budget $17.1 billion in the first four years.
Photo shows
A graphic showing Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton with bowser pumps, in front of a background of hundred dollar bills.
A policy fight over cost-of-living relief has emerged with a federal election looming.
Despite scrapping those cuts, the Coalition's pledging up to $1,200 of your "own money back" as a tax rebate to everyone earning less than $144,000.
Billed as the Cost of Living Tax Offset, the Coalition says it will provide "temporary and targeted" cost-of-living relief.
It'd be paid in a one-off lump sum at tax time in July 2026, with anybody with taxable income between $48,000 and $104,000 getting the full amount, and those earning below $48,000 or between $104,00 and $144,000 getting a smaller offset.
Labor's also promising a $1,000 instant tax deduction, which it says will provide cost-of-living relief and make tax time easier.
It means people can instantly claim that $1,000 deduction on their taxes for work expenses like uniform or equipment, without providing receipts or getting professional tax advice.
A similar measure is already in place up to $300.
But that sum won't land in your bank account — the $1,000 will be deducted from your taxable income, and Labor's estimating the average amount of annual tax relief will be about $205.
And you can
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Making GP visits cheaper
Both parties have policies to make healthcare cheaper.
The centrepiece of
Labor says that will be the single largest investment in Medicare since its inception more than 40 years ago, and the Prime Minister has gone to great lengths to flash his green Medicare card as many times as possible during the campaign.
"No Australian should have to check their bank balance to see if they can afford to see a doctor," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when announcing the policy.
"That is not who we are. That is not the future we want for Australia."
Anthony Albanese has frequently pulled out a Medicare card during the campaign.
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ABC News: Ian Cutmore
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The bulk-billing incentive is a payment aimed at encouraging doctors to bill Medicare directly, when patients have no out-of-pocket costs.
Photo shows
a graphic of a female doctor wearing glasses in front of an emergency department sign
Just like Oprah's iconic "you get a car" moment, Labor is throwing urgent care clinics to punters like confetti.
The government's tripling of the incentive currently only applies to a smaller cohort of the population like children and concession card holders.
The Coalition has promised to match Labor's bulk-billing promise "dollar-for-dollar", in an effort to lift bulk-billing rates, although it's refrained from committing to the 90 per cent bulk-billing target.
There's
The Coalition will also match
Many GPs say they won't be able to move to full bulk-billing under the proposed changes.
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Flickr: Alex Proimos
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Those who access mental health services could also see a savings, with the Coalition planning to reinstate the number of Medicare-funded mental health sessions from 10 to 20 per year, if elected.
That's part of the Coalition's $400 million pledge for youth mental health services.
Labor's promising to offer free and immediate mental health as well through a $225 million pledge to build or upgrade 31 walk-in Medicare mental health centres, which is part of a $1 billion promised investment into mental health services.
You can read a full breakdown of the health promises
The price of energy
A key component of the Coalition's cost-of-living plan is its gas reservation policy, which would force exporters to divert supply to the domestic market.
Mr Dutton is promising that households would see a reduction in their gas and electricity bills.
The Coalition says it will work to bring down gas prices.
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ABC News: Natasha Johnson
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The Coalition's modelling by Frontier Economics says residential gas bills could be cut by 7 per cent in 2026, while household electricity bills may go down by around 3 per cent.
Mr Dutton insists that policy would also make items like groceries cheaper, by driving down the cost of energy for business.
Photo shows
Fingal Bay
The Liberals and the Nationals are both eyeing off working class seats that were once unquestionably Labor territory, but has the Coalition's nuclear policy blown wind farms out of the water as an issue for voters?
Labor hasn't articulated a plan to permanently bring down power prices for all households during the campaign, but ahead of the election, extended its energy rebates until the end of 2025, providing another $150 in energy bill relief.
The Coalition supported the extension, so that rebate will stay no matter which party gets elected.
But for those with solar panels or considering rooftop solar, Labor is offering a
It argues the subsidy will cut $4,000 from the cost of a typical battery, and up to $1,100 on the average annual power bill.
TAFE fees, HECS and more
For those Australians paying off their HECS loans, Labor has committed to wiping 20 per cent off everyone's student debt, and lowering repayment rates to help with the hip pocket for more than 3 million current and former university students.
The average university graduate with a debt of $27,600 would see about $5,520 wiped from their outstanding loan next year.
Labor also wants to make free TAFE permanent: around 100,000 fee-free TAFE places a year would be offered from 2027 if the legislation passes under a re-elected Labor government.
Labor has committed to wiping 20 per cent off everyone's student debt.
Before the election, Labor also passed legislation to provide parents a guaranteed minimum three days of subsidised childcare, abolishing the 'activity test' that requires parents to be working or looking for work to access subsidies.
It says families earning between $50,000 and $100,000, are expected to save $1,460 a year on average.
Mr Dutton's suggested the Coalition would cut fee-free TAFE if elected, arguing the program isn't a good use of taxpayers' money.
Photo shows
A young white man with short brown hair and glasses sitting with a middle aged white woman with long blonde hair
New research shows a sharp rise in HECS debts, despite graduate earning power declining, as student loans become a potent election issue for the first time.
The Liberal party also confirmed it would not proceed with Labor's 20 per cent student debt-reduction plan — Coalition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson told the ABC the policy was "elitist and unfair".
The three-day guarantee of subsidised childcare could also be wound back by the Coalition, with Mr Dutton saying the activity test for parents would be reinstated.
As for savings at the supermarket check-out, both Labor and the Liberals are pointing to the now-mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which regulates conduct between groceries and suppliers, and contains penalties for supermarket giants.
But fairer prices for suppliers might not mean much for the hip pocket of consumers.
Labor's committing to make it illegal for supermarkets to price-gouge customers if re-elected.
Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson said his party would be "happy to make [price gouging] illegal", but the Coalition had a better plan to create divestiture powers that could be used to break up the supermarket giants if they were behaving anti-competitively.
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