Covid 19 Coronavirus: Transtasman Travel Bubble in Weeks – Australian Reports

A travel bubble between New Zealand and New South Wales could open in a few weeks, according to reports from Australia.

But traveling inside the bubble would initially only be one-way with the Kiwis heading to Australia, and restricted to those who live on the South Island.

With community outbreaks of coronavirus on hand both here and in the first state, the federal government would initially only allow Kiwi residents to come to Australia, according to a report by the Sunday Telegraph.

Those travelers will not be required to self-quarantine once they arrive in Australia.

Residents of New South Wales are expected to be able to travel here at Christmas as well.

This morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that there had been work for weeks on the possibility of forming a bubble and the ability to move between parts of both countries that were not affected by Covid-19.

News.com.au reports that the federal government has approached the New South Wales government to discuss different options.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Winston Peters is talking about the transtasman bubble and says he is optimistic that travel between the two countries could be limited before Christmas.

Ardern told Mike Hosking of NewstalkZB today that previous discussions with the Australian prime minister discussed a “critical point agreement” between the two countries.

“We were always open to this. Our view was that we could always get the movement between Australia and New Zealand open sooner if they took a hotspot or state-by-state approach.

The speed to get it up and running would hinge on excluding states where Covid was still disrupting communities, citing Victoria, and assurances that there were firm borders between states with infected communities and those with which the journey was opening.

“And then you also have to make sure you have routes that don’t have passengers in transit,” Ardern said.

“Currently, everything in and out of Australia and New Zealand has travelers in and out of Covid areas, so you have to completely segregate those travelers.”

He confirmed that work had continued until the time of organizing safe travel.

“In this recent Australian decision on the hotspot, they worked out the details on their side of what it would be like, whether or not they would include all of New Zealand or whether they would also include hotspots for us.”

He said it was important to know how Australia was dealing with border issues before any flights took off, but did not give a deadline for this to happen.

It was something he would be raising with Scott Morrison when they spoke next.

“We had an initial discussion about what that would mean for New Zealand and the transtasman bubble and I hope we will discuss that again soon,” he said.

Australia’s Federal Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Simon Birmingham said yesterday that he expected Australians to be able to travel to New Zealand by the end of 2020.

“We are working hard to ensure that all precautions and security measures are in place at our airports, our border protections, inspection processes, to ensure that people can travel safely between Australia and New Zealand without the risk of encountering other air travelers who may be coming from higher risk countries.

“Ultimately if New Zealand opens up to Australia it will be New Zealand’s affair, but we are working to make sure we are ready and hopefully we can see those steps taken this year.”

At first, the travel bubble would only be open to residents of the South Island, as the country handles a cluster of cases on the North Island.

Peters said yesterday that work on transtasman travel arrangements has accelerated in recent weeks and that Tasmania and Queensland would likely be the first states to open up for New Zealand travelers.

“We’re going as hard as we can and it’s still up to Australia and the assurance that the protocols are strong enough, but I honestly think now is sooner rather than later.”

“It’s the Victorian situation that worries us the most, but I think we can be sure that, while some were saying that by Christmas, we should be able to do it much earlier.”

He says he would “like to think” what would happen in a few weeks.

Ardern previously dismissed any conversation about a transtasman travel bubble, saying transmission levels from Australia’s coronavirus community had been too high to contemplate opening their nation to its citizens.

“One of the things that we said as part of our criteria was that anywhere we have quarantine-free trips, they must be free of community transmission for a period of time, 28 days.

“That is going to take a long time for Australia to get back there.”

– additional reports, rnz