How do the 2025 Federal election commitments on cost-of-living measures stack up?

The cost of living has been front and centre in the Federal election campaign.

Rising prices, the financial pressures created by persistently high consumer price inflation (CPI), and the failure of wages to keep pace with rising costs, have all featured among the priority election issues for most Australian families, providing a focus for some of more animated debates between parties – as well as a topic of (mis)information from the fringe campaign groups.

But what’s the true picture of price inflation in Australia? How much has the cost-of-living pressures impacted the financial wellbeing of families?

And what are the main election protagonists offering by way of solutions to alleviate these pressures?

This BCEC Federal Election 2025 Briefing Note looks at the evolution of inflation over the last term of government, failures of wage growth to keep up with inflation, and what the major parties have proposed to reduce the cost-of-living pain felt by Australians.

Key insights

• Australia’s consumer price index (CPI) has increased by 23.2 per cent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Some of the highest price increases have been for essential commodities, including food and beverages (+24.7%), housing (27.1%) and transportation (+20%).
• Prices have grown at a faster rate than wages – close to 1.5 times faster in the last five years.
• More than a fifth (21%) of Australian families are showing signs of financial stress.
• Annual wages growth of at least 2.8% is needed over the next three years to reach the same purchasing power as before the pandemic.
• Most of the cost-of-living policies proposed by the two main parties are either temporary in nature or fail to deal directly with the long-term contraction of households’ purchasing power.
• Structural changes are needed to provide long-term relief from cost-of-living pressures, and to protect consumers from uncompetitive markets with a concentration of large retailers.
• Fostering the entry of new retail players and exerting tighter controls on companies in oligopolistic positions should be put in place, including price, margins and profit reporting.
• Neither of the two main parties’ proposals addresses the adequacy of income support measures such as the Jobseeker.
• People on government payments can’t fulfil their basic needs, especially with rental and interest rate hikes.
• The indexation of personal tax brackets and other income support payments are needed to protect support for those who need it most.