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Australians are bracing for the first interest rate hike in 12 years, as Labor and the coalition clash on managing the economy.

It comes as three of the four big banks predict a rise in the cash rate by next week, following new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing the annual inflation rate jumped 5.1 per cent.

The figure could force the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate from its record low of 0.1 per cent.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a time of "great uncertainty" with cost of living pressures, voters should return his government to power based on their track record.

"As Australia comes out of these difficult times, we don't want them to be hit down again by forces well beyond Australia's borders but ... what we've shown as a government is we've been able to keep as much pressure down on those forces as good governments can," he said.

"We've demonstrated that for now."

Labor's economic plan, if it wins office, would include an audit of "waste and rorts" as well as crackdowns on multinational companies avoiding tax in a bid to make $5 billion in budget savings.

Mr Morrison will start Thursday by campaigning in Cairns - the marginal Liberal seat of Leichhardt - which is held by 4.2 per cent.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese remains in isolation after returning a positive COVID-19 test last week.

But Labor frontbenchers will continue to campaign in his stead, and will be in Sydney on Thursday.

Mr Albanese will officially launch Labor's election campaign in Perth on Sunday.

Meanwhile, ABC managing director David Anderson has written to both major parties pitching a leaders' debate on Monday, May 9.

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Some 98 per cent of rental properties across the country are too expensive for workers on the minimum wage.

A new survey by Anglicare Australia of 45,992 rental listings shows the market is less affordable than ever, and all political parties need to act urgently.

Only 712 of the rental properties surveyed by Anglicare Australia, or two per cent, could be afforded by Australians earning minimum wage.

"Australia's housing crisis has reached fever pitch," Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said.

"No part of the country has been spared. Rents are shooting up in towns and regions, and our cities have never been more expensive.

"We keep hearing that this election is about living costs, but housing is the biggest cost facing Australians."

Older Australians on the pension were even worse off, only able to afford 312, or one per cent, of the properties surveyed.

People living on the disability support pension could only afford 52 rental properties, or less than one per cent of the rental listings.

There were just eight affordable rentals for people living on Jobseeker, all rooms in share houses.

There are currently 950,000 on Jobseeker or other unemployment payments, more than before the pandemic.

Similarly, a person living on Youth Allowance student payments could afford a room from a small amount of share houses.

Low-income families were also found to be particularly vulnerable, with 78 properties found to be affordable to an out-of-work couple with two children, and 61 homes affordable for single parents receiving the parenting payment.

Anglicare is now calling on whoever wins the election in May to raise the rate of Jobseeker above the poverty line.

"If we don't, people out of work will be pushed deeper into housing stress and even homelessness," Ms Chambers said.

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie said people on low incomes are being caught in a "crushing pincer movement" of rising rents and stagnant incomes.

"They have long been priced out of major cities and, increasingly, from many regional areas," she said.

Dr Goldie said the findings were alarming and should be a wake-up call to the government and those running for election.

She said without major changes to housing policy, the situation will continue to deteriorate.

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Scott Morrison has made a targeted economic pitch to regional and rural voters, while Labor has claimed working families would be better off under its budget plan.

As the prime minister visited regional Queensland on Wednesday, Mr Morrison touted the coalition's partnership with rural areas and what the regions brought to the national economy.

"(Regional) jobs and lifestyles derided or seen as somehow unworthy, in a world where the big talkers all seem to work in government, or finance, or the tech industry or the media," he said.

"That is not the country I know. I believe the vast majority of Australians in our capital cities feel a genuine affinity and connection with the Australian heartland."

It comes as Labor announced its plan for the budget, should the opposition win office.

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the plan would save about $5 billion to the budget bottom line, by carrying out an audit of waste and rorts and cracking down on multinational companies avoiding tax.

"Only Labor has a plan for beyond the election to make sure that there are more opportunities for more people and working families can get ahead in this country," Dr Chalmers told reporters in Canberra.

"Not one cent of the almost $5 billion in budget improvements that we announced today will come at the expense of ordinary Australians."

The announcement coincided with new inflation figures which showed it rising to 5.1 per cent, the highest level in two decades.

Dr Chalmers said the government's handling of the economy had led to record rise.

"Australians are getting absolutely smashed by the rising cost of living on Scott Morrison's watch," he said.

"This is Scott Morrison's triple whammy of skyrocketing cost of living, rising interest rates and falling real wages."

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the large rise in inflation was to do with international factors.

"Australia is not immune from the international pressures driving up inflation. The war in Ukraine has seen a spike in fuel prices, gas prices and commodity prices being felt here at home," he said.

Meanwhile, the government faced internal divisions over climate change, with Nationals senator Matt Canavan saying the coalition's net-zero target was "dead".

Mr Morrison said the coalition was committed to its net-zero policy but as prime minister he needed to bring people together from different perspectives across the country.

"That debate has been done in the coalition and it is resolved and our policy was set out very clearly. (Net zero) has the strong support of the government," he said.

"We did the hard yards to get everyone together and of course, there'll be some who disagreed at the time and I suspect they still will, but that doesn't change the government's policy."

Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare said the coalition was at war with itself over climate change.

"Half the Liberal Party, most of the National Party, think climate change is what happens when you go to Hawaii for a holiday. It's time they got real," he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

It comes as the coalition slightly improves its position in new polling but Labor remains in an election-winning position of 54.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

The latest Roy Morgan poll shows the LNP gained a small 0.5 per cent during the second week of the campaign.

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