Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham says the federal government would like to establish a travel bubble with New Zealand by late 2020. Plans for an Australia-wide bubble were put on hold due to the second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria.
The government is now looking at restricting the proposed trans-Tasman bubble to states that have no community transmission, with people who live in areas that are designated as coronavirus ‘hotspots’ to be barred from travelling to NZ.
The push to re-open borders between the two nations has been welcomed by NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Winston Peters:
