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Scott Morrison believes an upgrade of Australia's economic outlook by the International Monetary Fund is a vote of confidence in his economic plan.

In its latest world economic outlook, the IMF raised its forecast for Australian growth to 4.2 per cent in 2022 from 4.1 per cent previous, while slashing its global growth prediction to 3.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent.

"While they were downgrading global growth ... they upgraded growth for Australia, a vote of confidence in the economic plan," the prime minister told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.

But shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australians were still being slugged by skyrocketing cost of living pressures.

"Hard-working families are being held back by pay that isn't keeping up with prices," he told AAP.

Still, backing the IMF's view, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading index - which indicates the likely pace of economic activity three to nine months into the future - in March rose to its highest level since May 2021.

It suggests the economy will grow comfortably above the long-term growth rate of 2.8 per cent.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans is forecasting growth of around 5.5 per cent in 2022, driven by the rapid recovery in household spending.

Separately, falling petrol prices have given a further lift to consumer confidence, supporting the recovery in spending to some degree.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index rose 2.3 per cent in the past week to 96.8, its highest level since March 6.

However, an index below 100 indicates pessimists still outweigh optimists.

In a mirror image, household inflation expectations dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 5.3 per cent, its lowest level since March 6 as petrol prices declined for a fourth straight week.

"Oil prices have risen more than 10 per cent from the low at the beginning of last week, so it's not clear if there is much more room for confidence to be boosted by lower petrol prices," ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum said the national average for petrol prices fell by a further eight cents in the past week to 166.3 cents a litre, continuing a sharp decline from above $2 a litre.

This reflects in part the federal government's temporary halving of fuel excise in last month's budget.

Still, cost of living pressures remain more broadly in the economy with next week's inflation figures expected to show a sharp rise.

In the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's April board meeting it warned that rising inflation may have brought forward the timing of an increase in the cash rate.

It expects measures of underlying inflation in the March quarter to be more than three per cent - above its two to three per cent target.

But it indicated it still wants to see the consumer price index for the March quarter due on April 27 and the wage price index for the same period on May 18.

Mr Evans expects the RBA to raise the cash rate by 0.15 per cent at the June board meeting to 0.25 per cent.

He then predicts 0.25 per cent increases at most subsequent meetings in 2022 reaching 1.25 per cent at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the National Skills Commission confirmed skilled job advertisements posted on the internet rose 3.7 per cent in March, to be 24.1 per cent higher than a year earlier.

Job ads rose for all eight occupational groups monitored by the commission and increased in every state and territory in the month.

© AAP 2022

Close contacts will be exempt from isolation, primary school students can ditch the masks and the unvaccinated allowed to return to venues as part of Victoria's new COVID-19 restrictions.

A raft of rules will ease from 11.59pm on Friday after the state passed the peak of its second Omicron wave, Health Minister Martin Foley announced on Wednesday.

"We know that there will be a long plateauing and tail to this BA.2 Omicron sub-variant wave," he told reporters.

"But what we know is that we've passed the peak and we are able to look to this group of sensible measures being able to take us into a still-challenging winter."

Under the changes, close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases will no longer have to quarantine if they wear a mask indoors, avoid sensitive settings and return five negative rapid antigen tests over the seven-day period.

Confirmed cases must continue to self-isolate for the full seven days but will be exempt from testing and quarantine for 12 weeks after their positive result, up from eight.

Similar changes were unveiled in NSW following a push from business groups for the isolation rule to be relaxed to ease ongoing staff shortages.

Other Victorian-specific restrictions have also been tweaked, including the removal of mandatory masks for students in grades three to six as well as workers in childcare, retail and indoor events with more than 30,000 people.

Masks will remain compulsory on public transport, in airports and health, aged care and justice settings, although there will be no limit on hospital visits.

In keeping with the sweeping changes, patrons and workers will no longer have to prove their vaccination status or check-in when entering pubs, restaurants, movie theatres and sports venues.

Premier Daniel Andrews previously said the state's vaccinated economy would remain in place until at least April and possibly throughout the entirety of 2022.

But it's not the end of worker vaccine mandates altogether, with double- and triple-dose requirements retained for key industries such as healthcare, food distribution, police, emergency services and education.

When the state's new pandemic-specific legislation came into effect in January, power for changing Victoria's COVID-19 restrictions was shifted from Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to Mr Foley.

Professor Sutton said he has recommended a transition away from vaccine mandates to workplaces setting their own policy.

"Some of them will no doubt lift those mandates and allow their workforces to attend work without a vaccination requirement, but some of them may well land on a policy that has an ongoing mandate," he said.

"That should be worked out industry by industry."

Victoria's seven-day COVID-19 case average remains below 10,000, despite the state recording 10,628 new infections and 14 deaths on Wednesday.

Prof Sutton said he believed the Omicron wave had plateaued, with daily infections falling 10 per cent over the past week.

"I think today's a blip. It's going to be a long tail and a slow decline," he said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier welcomed the changes but expressed disappointment it had taken "so long".

"Close contact isolation rules should have been eased weeks ago. These decisions have had real impacts on families, on children and on businesses," she said.

© AAP 2022

Anthony Albanese has emerged as the narrow winner from the first leaders' debate, as the opposition leader accused the government of having no vision for the future.

Both Mr Albanese and Prime Minister Scott Morrison faced questions from a panel of 100 undecided voters on Wednesday, ranging from the economy, nursing in aged care and the need for a federal integrity commission.

Of the voters in the room, 40 per cent backed the opposition leader while 35 per cent thought the prime minister had the better night, while 25 per cent still remained undecided.

Mr Albanese accused the government of just treading water while Mr Morrison touted his track record as prime minister.

Mr Morrison used the debate to spruik his economic record as leader, coming off the back of the COVID pandemic.

"The budget has turned around by over $100 billion, that is the single biggest turnaround in about 70 years," he said.

"The reason for that is we've got people into work, off welfare ... that is the major way you turn a budget around."

Mr Albanese went on the attack, saying the government was not focused on the future beyond the May 21 poll.

"The problem with this government is that it's just treading water, not pursuing any significant economic, social or environmental reforms," he said.

"(The government) are shooting for a second decade in office and they haven't shown any plan."

One question came from the mother of a four-year-old child with autism, who had NDIS funding cut by 40 per cent.

While Mr Morrison praised the work of the NDIS, while noting it was a difficult system, the prime minister drew criticism online after saying he and wife Jenny were "blessed" that their children did not have disabilities.

Mr Albanese said the situation regarding the funding cuts was not an isolated one.

"Labor does the big things and we also do the big reforms," he said.

"You can't be scared of the future, you have to shape the future otherwise, the future will shape you."

Both leaders traded blows over party stances on boat turnbacks, with Mr Morrison accusing Mr Albanese of being inconsistent on the issue during Labor's previous term in government.

"Other countries around the world have said Australia got it right," Mr Morrison said.

"You'll know I'll do it because I've done it."

When asked by Mr Albanese about why the prime minister was "looking for division", Mr Morrison responded he was "looking for the accuracy".

The opposition leader said Labor would do boat turnbacks should it win government.

When asked about how the nursing workforce would be supported in aged care, Mr Albanese said there was a critical need for more nurses to be trained up.

"Most people would be surprised that there aren't nurses in nursing homes, because it seems so fundamental," he said.

"Our aged care plan isn't something we've dreamed up, it is something that comes from the royal commission."

While the opposition has pledged to have a nurse on call 24/7, Mr Morrison said extra staff couldn't just "fall out of the sky", warning the plan would have repercussions in the sector.

"If you make that standard in aged care facilities right across Australia right now, then you will be closing aged care facilities in rural and regional communities across the country," he said.

Following news of the Solomon Islands signing a security pact with China, Mr Albanese criticised Mr Morrison on foreign policy failings, while also labelling Pacific Minister Zed Seselja a "junior burger".

"This isn't so much a Pacific step up, it's a Pacific stuff up," he said.

The prime minister said the issue in the Solomons was serious and one the government had been conscious of for a long time.

Integrity in politics also came up as a major issue, with Labor pledging an anti-corruption commission "with teeth", while the prime minister said he wanted to see a commission deal with criminal matters and not for it to be a kangaroo court.

© AAP 2022