One of these issues is the cost of living.

The question the Mercury put to the candidates was:

You can read the candidates' responses below.

"For the past two years I have witnessed many people struggling with rising cost of living pressures. We have seen a rise in food costs, that has created a dilemma for some doing it tough, as to whether this means eating a meal or paying the rent.

We have experienced a housing affordability crisis, that has now made home ownership here in the Illawarra unrealistic for our young people.Those that were fortunate to buy a home will now face hardships when interest rates begin to rise.

If home loan interest rates go to four per cent then 60 per cent of mortgage holders will default on their mortgages. At six per cent it will be 80 per cent of Mortgage holders who will default and loose their homes.

The United Australia party will stop people loosing their homes and reduce the cost of living by:* Freezing Home Loan interest rates at three per cent per annum for five years to save Australian home ownership.*

Make the first $30 000 paid on a home loan tax deductible each year. This will boost the construction industry and increase home ownership security.*

Freezing the fuel excise to reduce cost-of-living pressures on Australian families. Under a United Australia Party government, the fuel excise will be frozen and no more extra taxes will be imposed on hard-working Australians.*

Reduce the taxation rate on a person's second job. This will result in higher income over the average weekly earnings by 50 per cent, giving all Australians the incentive to work.

*Asia is dependent on Australian Iron ore for its manufacturing. The UAP will Pay off Australia's 1.4 Trillion dollar debt within 20 years by charging a 15 per cent export license on all Iron ore exports. This will reduce inflation which in turn will reduce the cost of living."

You don't need to spend much time in the supermarket to know that grocery prices are rising. Petrol prices are up, house prices and rents are up and interest rates are expected to rise again soon too.

At the same time, wages growth is flat. Over the last year prices went up 3.5 per cent but wages grew by only 2.3 per cent - meaning most workers are worse off.

The Coalition government's record is stagnant wages; insecure jobs; increased costs for health and childcare; longer wait times and higher costs to see a GP; and a trillion dollars of debt.

One of the best ways to have real and meaningful help with the cost of living is to get wages growing again.

In the Illawarra we need an economy with stronger wages and more secure work.

Investing in skills, jobs and manufacturing through fee-free TAFE courses; additional university places; maximising the use of Australia products in government projects; and our $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to rebuild our industrial base will help to support more secure local jobs.

A Labor Government would cut the cost of childcare meaning 96 per cent of families are better off.

Our plans to boost renewable energy, invest in community batteries and rewiring the grid will cut power bills while creating jobs and reducing carbon emissions.

Australia's gender pay gap is almost 14 per cent and that's not good enough. A Federal Labor Government will also lead a national push to close the gender pay gap and we will legislate to criminalise wage theft so that working people are paid fairly for the work that they do.

Labor will also deliver tax relief through the tax cuts that benefit everyone with incomes above $45,000.

Together, Labor's policies will help to relieve pressure on the family budget.

With the cost of living (3.5 per cent) rising faster than wages (2.3 per cent), it is imperative our new government implements fresh policies to address the disparity for Australians in both urban and regional areas. There ARE simple solutions to this inflation crisis. Some solutions require more vision and courage at the federal level. Whilst many solutions for the Illawarra are more localised Council, community and individual initiatives. An obvious increase in the living wage is required, to reduce the suffering just to make ends meet experienced such as by job-seekers, disadvantaged groups and pensioners.

At the core of the Citizen's Party initiatives is the urgent need for Australia's new national post office bank, to replace our sold-off Commonwealth bank. This economic imperative will ensure simpler access to the financial resources, investment and infrastructure funds to help resolve national cost of living challenges. It will also assist diversifying food production, timely support to family farmers and producers affected by climate events, and improve our national infrastructure to help supply and distribution issues we face countrywide. Cunningham and surrounds benefits from a wealth of rich farming, food production and food manufacturing initiatives that can ensure our region's food security and reduce the long-term inflationary pressures on cost of grocery essentials.

Rising housing, construction and rental costs are another ongoing pressure that requires better national thinking to address. Already in our Illawarra there are land-sharing projects, community aged-care housing initiatives, community garden and food growing collectives and a host of construction and social housing experiments to help find solutions to cost of living challenges.

Petrol costs need to reduce with a cut to the excise duty and Australia must face the fact that we have less than a month of supply to keep our economy moving. Citizens Party will immediately work on solutions to resolve the systemic petrol and energy production, storage and supply issues faced by Australia, so we are less reliant on external sources.

In our experience, Cunningham has the resources, expertise and research intelligence with University of Wollongong (UoW), to implement regional innovations to help relieve the cost of living pressures in the Illawarra faster. With genuine consultation, our community can develop a range of solutions to housing affordability and rising costs and the new national post office bank will help access the funds required to get these Illawarra initiatives implemented.

The Liberal Democrats believe the current red/blue duopoly is not beneficial, and the cost of living has soared under this system.

In 2007 the federal government had zero net debt and a robust economy. After six prime ministers (both Liberal and Labor) we are now on track for over one trillion dollars in debt in the current years.

This means significant inflation, a major contributor to the cost of living. When a major party promises handouts to "help" with the cost of living, know that this is added to our national debt. How useful will an extra few hundred dollars be each month be if everything you buy goes up by five per cent? The Liberal Democrats aim to be a sensible alternative to the major parties, and as a result we are taking ten very well thought out policies to the election. I believe at least three of these will genuinely help relieve cost of living pressures for Australians.

1. Debt and deficit: Debt imperceptibly bogs a nation down and leads to significant increases to the cost of living by way of inflation. Our debt needs to be repaid and it is a dereliction of duty to pass it onto the next generation. We propose a 10 per cent cut to all federal departments (besides defence). We propose to abolish duplicate government departments- state run services should be left to the states. We propose to reduce politicians pay by 10 per cent.

2. Cheap and reliable energy: We support removing the blanket ban on nuclear energy in Australia. We support free market energy, where all sources of energy should compete in the market on their own merits of reliability, cost and sustainability. This would lead to lower electricity bills for all Australians.

3. Low, flat taxes: We propose a $40,000 tax free threshold and a flat 20 per cent income tax above $40,000. Introducing a high tax free threshold will ensure that no low income worker is required to pay income tax. By indexing tax brackets we will end the dishonest rort that is bracket creep.

The cost of petrol, groceries, medical bills and child care have been rising out of control in the past two years.

Even the cost of coffee is expected to rise, and for me, the rising cost of rent hurts.

The government doesn't have direct influence over the cost of oil and petrol, or the rising costs at the supermarket, but it can remove other expenses that our community members bear, leaving more money in our weekly budgets.

The price of child care has risen 6.5 per cent in the last year, school fees mean that public schools aren't free, and the cost of tertiary education has skyrocketed. If elected, the Greens will make all education free - from early childhood to TAFE and university. We will also ease the financial burden on recent graduates by removing their existing HECS debt.

By improving infrastructure and providing $15,000 rebates to incentivise electric car purchases, we can make it cheaper to run a car, and decrease Australia's reliance on petrol imports.

We'll also introduce fairer taxes so we can have free dental care in Medicare. We'll provide free NBN to 1.5 million Australians who struggle with their weekly budget.

We'll fund housing services and a huge boost to public housing to get people off the streets, and stop the rise in rents. We'll prevent property investors from negative gearing more than one property, giving homeowners a chance to get into the housing market. For me, the roof over my head is my biggest expense.

All these initiatives will reduce the cost of living in Cunningham. On top of this, we will increase income support and public sector wages (especially nurses, midwives, aged care workers, teachers).

Only the Greens have plans for all these areas of your weekly budget. Check us out online. No other party has policies in these areas which will directly help families and workers in Cunningham.

You can see what the candidates thought about health here, and climate here.

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