Treasurer Scott Morrison boasts there are now more optimists about the economy than there are pessimists, but the news isn't as good as it sounds.
It's true there was a two per cent rise in consumer sentiment in August.
The problem is, given the Westpac Melbourne Institute survey was conducted in the midst of the official interest rate being slashed to a record low 1.5 per cent, that's actually not such an enthusiastic result.
It's "much more muted" than the index's 8.5 per cent jump after rates were cut in May, and Westpac chief economist Bill Evans says the banks are partly to blame.
In May, most banks passed the cut on in full - in August they didn't.
"The PM and I fall into the category of the optimists," Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
It was his response to a question that was actually about the Commonwealth Bank and its failure to pass on the full rate cut despite unveiling a seventh straight record profit of $9.45 billion on Wednesday.
It came as outgoing Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens used his final public speech to deliver a warning to the government.
Lighting a fire under the economy might have to come from government spending, rather than interest rate cuts from the central bank.
"I have serious reservations about the extent of reliance on monetary policy around the world," Mr Stevens said.
He warned the popular debate about how to reduce government debt in Australia ignored the fact that gross household debt is three times larger than gross public debt.
"I am not advocating an increase in deficit financing of day-to-day government spending.
"The case for governments being prepared to borrow for the right investment assets - long-lived assets that yield an economic return - does not extend to borrowing to pay pensions, welfare and routine government expenses, other than under the most exceptional circumstances."
He also took a parting swipe at interest groups and Australia's inability to have a "hard-nosed conversation" about budget repair, warning it should occur before crisis hits.
"When specific ideas are proposed that will actually make a difference over the medium to long term, the conversation quickly shifts to rather narrow notions of `fairness'," he said.
"If we think this rather other-worldly discussion will not have to give way to a more hard-nosed conversation, we are kidding ourselves."
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