Federal Election 2022: Soaring prices, looming rate hike prompt calls for fresh cost of living relief

Cost of living has returned to centre stage in the election campaign as surging inflation raises expectation of an interest rate hike when the Reserve Bank board meets next week.

The double-whammy of soaring prices and looming interest rate rises has ignited a debate over whether temporary relief included in the Coalition's pre-election budget should be extended.

Josh Frydenberg's third pandemic budget included a six-month halving of the fuel excise and a one-off $250 handout to welfare recipients.

Mr Morrison and Labor frontbenchers were pressed on the prospects of further support beyond the May 21 poll as they campaigned in Cairns and Sydney on Thursday.

Neither side explicitly ruled it out, although both were playing down the possibility.

Mr Morrison said the measures included in the pre-election budget were consistent with the Coalition's approach through the pandemic of offering temporary and targeted support.

"You don't just spend money forever," he said.

"What you do is you make wise investments, you make strategic interventions to ensure you can limit the impact of things that are well beyond your control.

"Now, those things won't go on forever."

Labor's treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, said an Albanese government would consider the economic circumstances when deciding if to include further hip-pocket measures in a budget it would hand down later this year.

But Mr Chalmers once again tempered expectations of further handouts, echoing Mr Morrison by saying "it will be difficult to extend it forever".

"We'll see what the budget and economic conditions are at the time. But it will be hard to extend that relief indefinitely," he said.

Labor's campaign spokesman, Jason Clare, somewhat muddied the opposition's position when asked directly if it would support further cash handouts for struggling Australians.

Mr Clare said Labor supported the short-term measures included in the budget, but weren't proposing anything further.

He said longer-term reforms were needed to ease the pressure on Australia's families, such as Labor's plan for cheaper childcare and household energy bills.

The political fight over cost of living, wages and the economy escalated on Wednesday after the release of consumer price figures showing inflation had surged 5.1 per cent, the highest in more than 20 years.

The cost of food, fuel and housing have all shot up, putting further strain on under-pressure households.

The housing affordability crunch was laid bare on Thursday as an Angligare report showed Australians earning the minimum wage or on payments such as Jobseeker "don't stand a chance" of breaking into the rental market.

Labor is using the inflation figures as ammunition in an attempt to undermine Mr Morrison and the Coalition's credibility on economic management.

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"This is a cost-of-living crisis, a full-blown cost of living crisis," Mr Chalmers said, as he visited a child care centre in the Liberal-held seat of Banks in southern Sydney.

"Australians are getting absolutely hammered by it and their Prime Minister, true to form, is nowhere to be seen."

Mr Morrison maintains skyrocketing inflation is the result of external factors, including the war in Ukraine, COVID-19 pandemic and widespread supply chain disruptions.

The Prime Minister said the Coalition had managed to shield Australia from the worst of the global economic shocks.

"We understand the increasing pressures there are on families and Australians right around the country on cost of living. It's real. We know it's real," he said.

"And that's why in this year's budget, we took action. And we could take action to provide a shield for Australians against these rising costs of living."