Covid 19 coronavirus: Australian travel bubble in doubt as anger over kiwi travelers rises

It’s been less than 72 hours since the first travel bubble flight from New Zealand landed in Australia, but after a turbulent weekend, the future of bubbles may already be about to burst.

Flights from New Zealand began landing in New South Wales and the Northern Territory on Friday as part of the first installment of the one-way travel bubble, but the system has already exposed some leaks.

Over the weekend, dozens of New Zealanders arrived in Victoria and Western Australia aboard domestic flights even though both states chose not to participate in travel arrangements.

Under the new corridor, Kiwi residents can enter New South Wales and the Northern Territory without having to spend 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine.

But the hermetic plan apparently completely exploded, with some 23 Kiwi travelers entering Western Australia despite the state having a strict border on overseas arrivals.

In Victoria, the state that has battled Australia’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, 65 New Zealanders entered the Garden State without the knowledge of the state government and another five to South Australia.

Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews criticized the federal government, saying that he, along with his Western Australian counterpart, “had no idea” that New Zealand travelers were entering their states, despite choosing not to. participate in the travel bubble deal.

“We’re not particularly happy that they asked us the question, do you want to be in a bubble? And it turns out that even though we said no, we are, but that’s the fact, that’s what we’re up against.” “he told the media on Monday.

“Ultimately, we are in the bubble whether we like it or not … We cannot prevent these people from coming here, unless, of course, the Prime Minister and [acting Immigration Minister Alan] Tudge and anyone else seemingly blaming me for what happens at Sydney Airport, Perth Airport, Hobart Airport, you know, come on, stopping the federal government is in charge of the borders. “

Travelers are understood to have entered Victoria and Western Australia after flying into New South Wales and boarding domestic flights to other states.

The revelation left state authorities in trouble, and tourism experts wondered whether “border jumpers” could have jeopardized any future bubble arrangements.

“It does not surprise me at all that at least some New Zealanders wanted to go to places other than New South Wales and the Northern Territory,” tourism professor Dr. David Beirman from the University of Technology told news.com.au. Sydney

“Kiwis have ties to Australians in all states and territories. Just as we view New Zealand as a country without internal borders, most New Zealanders view Australia as one country and because their provinces have no restrictions on real entrance, kiwis understandably assume we’re the same.

“The concept of Australia with internal state borders having the right to ban or restrict visitors is foreign to 99 percent of kiwis.”

Beirman said the half-open corridors were sure to fail, and that the current situation facing Australia is no surprise.

“The constraints for New Zealanders coming to Australia were not very well communicated by the Australian government, the New Zealand government or the New Zealand travel industry to New Zealanders in general,” Beirman said.

“It appears that the airlines involved in bringing Kiwis to Australia, primarily Air New Zealand, did not use the three hour flight time from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to inform passengers about the finer points of the transtasman bubble which were the most Beyond NSW and the NT involved quarantine in most other states, resulting in many additional costs. “

Beirman believes that New Zealanders are unlikely to have been informed of the restrictions that still affect Australian interstate travel, and international travelers did not purposely try to “sneak” into other states.

“Clearly from the New Zealand end it was easy to tackle the Australian domestic ticket sectors, and it is likely that no warning has been given to the reservation staff,” he said.

“I don’t think most of the Kiwis who booked for Perth or Melbourne were looking to sneak away defying the state prime ministers, they just wanted to see their family and friends they had missed.

“If governments fail to communicate a policy like a half-burst travel bubble to all stakeholders, problems are a certainty.”

Beirman said he did not believe the blunder would prevent future travel bubbles from occurring, but Australia needed to “address them more systematically.”

“As it stands, the Australians cannot visit New Zealand at all, so I have defined this ‘bubble’ as a dribble, and a dribble where a lot of mistakes have been made on both sides of Tasmania.

“I guess if you are going to make mistakes, it’s better to make them in this version of the bubble than when we tested two-way bubbles with places like Fiji, Singapore or Japan.”

The political tumult that has burst from the transtasman travel bubble between the state and federal governments sparked a war of words with Andrews during his press conference on Monday, and the prime minister was apparently shocked to learn that dozens had arrived in Victoria during weekend.

While Victoria authorities have now spoken to 55 of the 65 people who came to the state to explain local coronavirus rules, Andrews reiterated that his government had repeatedly requested to be excluded from the deal.

“They asked us, ‘Do you want to be in the bubble?’ and we said ‘no,’ “Andrews told reporters Sunday.

“Nobody claims that the virus is hiding in New Zealand, it is not.

“The worrying thing is that a group of people showed up and we didn’t know it.”

The prime minister said he was originally informed by the federal government that there were 17 travelers from New Zealand who had entered Victoria, but it later emerged that there were as many as 65 possible arrivals.

According to ABC, Andrews wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday, requesting that newcomers from New Zealand be prevented from boarding internal flights from New South Wales to Victoria.

“I urgently request your action to ban passenger travel under the Safe Travel Zone agreements to Victoria,” the letter says.