News
Innovative trans-Tasman travel “bubble” embraced but “some time away”
May 8th 2020
Tourism and business groups have welcomed plans to establish a safe travel zone between Australia and New Zealand, flagged by the two countries this week. Read More »
The proposed safe travel zone, or "bubble", would exclude passengers flying between Australia and New Zealand from regulations such as a 14-day quarantine period in either country after arrival.
New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who met with Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and the leaders of Australia's state and territory governments via video link on Wednesday, said a trans-Tasman "bubble" would be put in place when necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met to ensure the protection of public health.
"The position I would take on behalf of New Zealand is when we feel comfortable and confident we won't receive cases from Australia, but equally we won't export them, then it will be the time to move," Ardern told reporters in Wellington this week.
"There is still a lot of work to be done before we can progress an idea like that, but it's obviously been floated because of its benefits."
Morrison told reporters this week in Canberra this week the bubble was "still some time away".
The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) has formed the "Trans-Tasman Safe Border Group" to support efforts to get the safe travel zone up and running.
Australian industry body, the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF), said the opening of international flights across the Tasman would be a significant step in helping "kick-start" the economies of both countries, especially as New Zealand was Australia's second largest inbound tourism market.
“While we appreciate travel between Australia and New Zealand won’t happen overnight this development provides some light at the end of the tunnel for an industry that has been brought to a standstill by the double whammy of the bushfires and the COVID-19 virus," TTF CEO, Margy Osmond, said in a statement.
New Zealand has recorded 1,489 cases of people contracting coronavirus and 21 deaths, figures from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. report. In Australia, 6,985 people have contracted COVID-19, with 97 deaths from the virus.
