Exclusive poll shows cost of living the top concern for NSW voters

Cost-of-living pressures, the NSW health system and our housing affordability crisis have emerged as the top issues on voters’ minds heading into Saturday’s election.

Cost of living, health care and housing affordability are the top three concerns for voters at this election, leaving all other issues in the dust, an ­exclusive poll has found.

The three issues were the only areas which a clear majority of voters — around two-thirds to three-quarters — rated as “very important” when it came to casting their ballot on Saturday.

In a sign that day-to-day struggles were top of mind for voters — and a bad sign for the Greens — the environment was ranked lowest of the six issues, with just 47 per cent of voters ranking it as very important and a mere 33 per cent even saying it was “quite ­important”.

This placed it below education (50/33), and law and order (47/40).

And women are far more worried about both cost of living and health than men, with a staggering four out of five rating both as very important — 82 and 80 per cent respectively — compared to just 69 and 65 per cent for men.

Housing affordability was also close to the No.1 issue for younger voters, with 67 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds rating it as “very important”, only just behind cost of living more generally on 68 per cent.

And when it comes to housing affordability, the Coalition and Labor are almost evenly split on the question of who is better to handle it, with 31 per cent favouring Labor and 30 per cent favouring the Coalition.

The poll of more than 700 voters, conducted by research group Essential Media on behalf of the Community Housing Industry Association, found that 76 per cent of voters rated cost of living “very important”, 73 per cent ­nominated health care and 62 per cent cited housing ­affordability.

Pollster Peter Lewis said that the high anxiety over housing affordability should be a wake-up call for Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns.

“You would obviously expect high concerns about cost of living and health in an economic crisis in the wake of a pandemic, but it’s clear that housing affordability is the rising phoenix of this election campaign,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

Ayten Okan with her kids Lana and Tuan at Parramatta on Thursday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ayten Okan, 38, moved to Parramatta from Cyprus two months ago with her young family.

The first thing that hit Ms Okan was how difficult the Sydney housing market was to break into.

The mother of two is still deciding who to vote for in Saturday’s election and like many voters feels housing affordability is a key issue.

“It’s really hard, and having moved back to Australia after so long, it’s difficult to find a place unless you know ­someone,” she said.

Having come from Europe, which is similarly facing high inflation, Ms Okan is no stranger to the high cost of ­living. An architect by trade, she has yet to find work in Australia.

“Prices are expensive everywhere but as I’m currently not working we’re really watching what we spend,” she said.

“It’s a big issue for us.

“I don’t really know the candidates and I don’t know how I’m going to vote, but Australia is such a wonderful country and almost everyone in Parramatta is an immigrant, which mean the politicians must be doing something right.”

Tellingly, housing affordability was considered far more important by women (69 per cent) than men, with a similar split between those with dependent children (68 per cent) and those without (57 per cent).

On the issue of housing affordability, a whopping 82 per cent said whoever wins the election should increase the supply of affordable rental properties, 74 per cent supported initiatives to provide stable accommodation to those sleeping rough and 57 per cent supported the Coalition’s plan to replace stamp duty with an annual property tax.

Meanwhile, Labor is currently considering a proposal from Homelessness NSW and the Community Housing Industry Association for $150m in new social housing.

It is understood leader Chris Minns is favourably disposed to the idea but the party is also determined to rein in spending.

Interestingly, the issues of education and housing affordability were neck and neck just six months ago, with 61 per cent of people rating education and 62 per cent rating housing affordability as very important.

But clearly as economic pressures have come to bite, interest rates have continued to rise and the rental market has continued to tighten, ­education has fallen away by more than 10 percentage points while housing has stayed top of mind.

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