Tax cuts not enough to sway voter economic worries

While the treasurer hopes voters remember the boost to their hip pockets from tax cuts, polls show voters remain unconvinced about the economy.

As the anniversary approaches of the federal government's revamped stage three tax cuts, a Resolve poll shows half of voters expect inflation to worsen in the future.

The same survey also shows the coalition leading Labor on a two-party preferred basis, months out from a federal election due to be held by May 17.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers brushed off the survey, arguing while the tax cuts brought in during 2024 were politically contentious at the time, they had made a difference to the wallets of taxpayers.

"Some of these numbers we're seeing are a reflection of the very real and genuine cost-of-living pressures that people are under," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"We know even as we make quite remarkable progress in the economy overall - inflation down, wages up, unemployment low - that doesn't always translate into how people are feeling and faring.

"You see that reflected from time to time in the opinion polls."

Labor in 2024 made changes to the former coalition's stage three tax cuts in order to distribute them more evenly across low and middle-income earners.

The stage three tax cuts saw Australians earning less than $150,000 a year receive a greater return than what they would have received, with the average household saving $2000 a year.

High-income earners still received a tax cut under the proposal, but less than what was originally intended in the coalition's original model.

Dr Chalmers said that financial support seen in the tax changes would continue.

"Now, in this financial year, every Australian taxpayer has been getting a tax cut to help with the cost of living, and as we get wages up in the coming financial year, those tax cuts will get bigger," he said.

"We have got inflation down, we have got wages up, we've kept unemployment low and the cost-of-living relief is flowing."

It comes as other opinion polls showed the government still has a hill to climb if it wants a second term in office.

The January poll for YouGov showed the coalition leading 51 to 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, despite voters backing Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister over Peter Dutton.