About 64.7 per cent of Aussie voters believe that the government should make reducing the cost of living a top priority, new research from The Australian National University (ANU) has revealed.

The high cost of living outranked all other major policy considerations for the over 3,500 voters surveyed by the university, study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said.

“Interestingly, we also found that this was a view held by people who said they would vote for Labor, for people who said they would vote for the Coalition, and for those who weren't planning on voting for either party,” he noted.

“For Coalition voters, 60.8 per cent said this was the highest priority. Among Labor voters it was even higher, with 68.8 per cent saying the same.”

The findings follow a spike in inflation reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with a 2.1 per cent increase for the consumer price index in the March quarter which took the annual rate of inflation to 5.1 per cent.

Fixing the aged care system was seen as the second highest priority by all voters (60.1 per cent) followed by strengthening the nation’s economy (54.4 per cent), reducing the cost of health care (53.5 per cent) and dealing with global climate change (52.8 per cent).

Only 36.6 per cent of Aussies believed that dealing with the outbreak of COVID-19 should be a top priority for the government.

The lowest priorities for Aussies included dealing with immigration (22.3 per cent), addressing issues around race (24.8 per cent), dealing with drug addiction (26.6 per cent) and reducing the budget deficit (27.2 per cent).

With the election less than two weeks away, ANU’s research also looked at the voting intentions of the Australian population.

“We found that there wasn't any significant change in the number of people who said they would vote for the Coalition - 31.2 per cent in April compared to 31.7 per cent in January," said Mr Biddle.

"We also found [that] there was also a small drop in the number of people who said they'd vote for Labor, with 34.3 per cent saying they would in April compared to 36.3 per cent in January.”