Last week's unexpected drop in the unemployment rate has helped to lift confidence among Australians.
However, there was a clear divide between those in a virus lockdown and those who are not.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index rose 0.5 per cent in the past week, partly helped by the surprise drop in the jobless rate to a 12-year low of 4.6 per cent.
There were strong confidence gains in Western Australia, up 11.4 per cent, while it rose eight per cent in South Australia. Queensland was up 1.7 per cent.
However, locked-down NSW fell by 1.9 per cent and Victoria was off 2.9 per cent.
"But even with this drop, sentiment in these two states remains well above the lows of last year," ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said.
"This supports our expectation that household spending will likely rebound sharply in lockdown areas when restrictions ease."
However, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott warned the longer the country remains under restrictions when an 80 per cent vaccination rate is reached, the harder it will be to recover.
"The longer we stay a fortress country, the shallower and longer our recovery will be," Ms Westacott told Sky News.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is pinning hopes on the national plan to open up the economy once vaccination rates of 70 and 80 per cent are met.
Just over 30 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated at present.
However, some states appear to be baulking at the national cabinet agreement at a time when NSW is posting hundreds of new infections a day.
A Labor analysis of federal government emergency payments suggests they may not be that lucrative for those stuck in lockdown and unable to work.
It says while the cumulative costs of these payments is currently estimated to be up to $25 billion, just $4 billion has been delivered.
It also estimates people on support in NSW will have been living on $38 per week, $25 per week in Victoria and just $23 in the ACT.
"Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have coughed up a small fraction of the $300 million a day that is being bled from the national economy as a direct result of their incompetence," shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers told AAP.
"Ending JobKeeper before the pandemic had ended and before enough Australians were vaccinated looks dumber by the day."
Meanwhile, Australia may have been hit by the worst recession in a hundred years, but the country's entrepreneurial spirit would appear undaunted.
New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show in the 2020/21 financial year there was a 3.8 per cent increase in the number of businesses in Australia.
Australian Associated Press
