Voters can explore which parties and candidates best match their own views through an online tool being launched today by the The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for the key final weeks of the federal election campaign.

The interactive platform has been built in partnership with the Australian National University in a bid to sharpen the focus on policies, better inform voters, and lift faltering public trust in politics.

The system, smartvote Australia, asks voters 35 questions about their views on social issues, taxation, immigration, the environment, foreign affairs and the budget.

Candidates and parties have also answered the questionnaire. The program matches voter results with candidates results and then ranks the candidates on how closely they match the views of readers.