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State and territory leaders will meet with the prime minister this morning to coordinate the national response to the ongoing fuel crisis in an attempt to avoid a “COVID-style” response, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said.
“The best way to get through this is to get through it together, to work through these issues in a coordinated and ideally consistent way around the country,” Chalmers told ABC News Breakfast a short while ago.
“The best way to avoid the kind of harsher COVID-style measures is to do that work. The better we do at the front end of this challenge … the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”
National cabinet will meet in Canberra this morning at 10am, AEDT, as federal parliament sits for the last time before the May budget. State and territory leaders will attend, either virtually or in person, alongside the prime minister and relevant federal ministers.
Chalmers went on to say the government had “a willingness” to support voluntary work-from-home measures to save fuel. He said it would be among a number of policies discussed at national cabinet:
One of the reasons why the prime minister has brought the states and territories together today is because we want to avoid harsh restrictions. We want to avoid those kind of heavy handed COVID interventions, and to make sure that people are doing the most responsible thing they can.
The better we do at the front end of this challenge that we have in our economy, the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”
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