Josh Frydenberg hopeful supply chain issues will be resolved in coming weeks

The Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he’s hopeful that supply chain issues impacting supermarkets will be resolved as the COVID-19 Omicron wave hitting the eastern states peaks and plateaus.
Empty supermarket shelves are popping up all over the country as workers at distribution centres are forced to isolate after contracting the virus.
It comes as National Cabinet revised the rules for close contacts in the sector, saying they can now work if they have been deemed a close contact but aren’t symptomatic.
“No one is understating the real challenges that the supply chains are now encountering,” Josh Frydenberg said on 6PR Breakfast.
“Because it’s not just distribution centres, it’s the trucking industry, it’s at our abattoirs and the like.
“But hopefully over the next few weeks and Omicron gets to its peak and starts to plateau some of these pressures can be alleviated.”
Meanwhile, Coles WA general manager Pat Zanetti told 6PR Breakfast a lot of pressure was coming from “panic buying”.
“It’s important that the things we’re seeing on the east coast is quite different to what we’re seeing here,” he said.
“This purely is customers buying more than they need, it’s causing the pressure in areas like meat.”
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