Canberra Liberals promise free public transport, school vouchers

The vouchers will be given for each child in preschool to year 12 and there will also be an extra $100 voucher for parents to spend on sport and other extra curriculum activities.

The party has also promised a $100 rebate for car and caravan registrations and a $50 rebate on electricity bills.

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee has announced the policies as part of a cost-of-living package expected to cost $65 million. She said under the policy a family with two school-aged children and two registered cars will be $750 better off and this will increase to $1000 for three children families.

Every Canberra family with school aged children is eligible as the vouchers and rebates will not be means tested or based on income.

"All these measures are in addition to the concessional measures that are currently already in place," the Opposition Leader said.

"The fact it is available for every Canberrans is going to have the additional benefit of making sure the Canberrans who haven't previously needed this support and do now are getting it."

It will be a one-off spend at this stage but Ms Lee said the Liberals were open to extending the program if the need was there.

"We will of course be open to reviewing how the implementation has gone and what impact it is having for Canberra households and depending on the cost-of-living situation," she said.

The free public transport will be available to all students, including university and vocational, as well as seniors and concession card holders.

Ms Lee said the school vouchers would be able to be spent at select registered businesses.

"Businesses will be able to register to receive the vouchers and the vouchers will be available to every parent and guardian who has responsibility for a school-aged student in the ACT," she said.

The car registration rebates will apply to every vehicle registered in the ACT, meaning every car in a household will receive the rebate. It will also apply to caravan and camper van registrations.

Ms Lee said the Liberals would determine how the promise would be funded through the budget process.

"As with every responsible government we will do a budget and these measures will be included in the first budget of a Canberra Liberals government," she said.

"We still have one more budget to come under Andrew Barr before the election and we don't know the true situation financially in the ACT but we will ensure that we go through the robust costings process through treasury."

This is the latest in a series of election promises from the opposition. The party has already pledged to spend $100 million in upgrades to community facilities in suburbs and would cancel the light rail to Woden.

Ms Lee said the cost-of-living package was developed based on feedback she had received from constituents.

"We know that thousands of Canberrans are doing it incredibly tough and the feedback we've had when we're doing mobile offices or door knocking or talking to constituents is there are so many Canberrans who are feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis and many of them are Canberrans who've actually not had the same pressures before," she said.

"These are real, tangible and broad measures because we know Canberrans are doing incredibly tough."

Ms Lee had foreshadowed a cost-of-living election commitment around helping families, saying in an interview with The Canberra Times earlier this month the government had missed an opportunity to help Canberra families in the lead-up to the return to school, foreshadowing this commitment.

She said the Liberals would promise further measures.

The ACT election is set to take place on October 19.