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New Zealand’s “travel bubble” can be with Cook Islands, not Australia

Australia’s hopes for an upcoming Trans-Tasmanian travel bubble are disappearing, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will prioritize travel arrangements with other countries ahead of us.

New Zealand appears to be pulling away from Australia’s proposal for a travel bladder in May, given the increasing number of coronavirus cases in Melbourne and new outbreaks in NSW.

Instead of Australia as the first option, Ms. Ardern is now giving the COVID-free Cook Islands, which together with Tokelau and Niue are part of the New Zealand Empire in the Pacific, first dibs.

“We know that opening realm countries, considering that they are New Zealand passport holders, will come before opening Australia,” Ms. Ardern told Newshub.

The Cook Islands have pushed for a travel bubble with New Zealand. Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown said earlier this month that he had “encouraging” talks with the New Zealand authorities on the issue.

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The Cook Islands, with just over 15,000 inhabitants, are one of the few countries in the world that did not report any COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.

Ms. Ardern would not comment on a possible travel bridge schedule with the South Pacific nation, but said that New Zealand’s airports are already working on logistics to allow the influx of travelers.

“(Officials work) with the airlines. It will take a few weeks. Then we get a report on the exact dates we can start introducing the reopening, ”she told Newshub.

Greg Foran, CEO of Air New Zealand, supported Ms. Ardern and said that the idea of ​​a travel bubble with Australia “felt a little closer eight weeks ago”.

“Now it feels like it could possibly be at the end of this year and probably next year as well,” he told a parliamentary committee on Thursday.

Mr. Foran also agreed with Ms. Ardern’s earlier statements that the complicated issue of separating transit passengers was part of why travel blisters took so long.

“If you have a country that is practically COVID-free and another country that is COVID-free, you have to determine how to deal with the mix, or ideally not with the mix of passengers traveling through the city “He said according to Newshub.

“This is something we as a team all have to wrestle with, especially that will be important for Australia.”

However, New Zealand ACT party leader David Seymour accepted the suggestion, saying that separating passengers at airports was “one of the easiest tasks” and New Zealand’s borders were “the stupidest in the world”.

“Resilient living in a post-COVID world requires a lot more sophistication than just saying,” It’s too difficult, we can’t even separate passengers who get off one plane from passengers on another, “he said.

The New Zealanders seem to be looking forward to the prospect of traveling to the Cook Islands. The latest data from Booking.com indicate that resorts on Rarotonga have generated more interest than in Melbourne and Sydney.

But there could still be a glimmer of hope for a trans-Tasmanian travel bridge between New Zealand and Tasmania that has only one active case of COVID-19.

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said he agreed to speak to Tasmanian Prime Minister Peter Gutwein.

“I always believed that it was possible between us and Tasmania,” he said Canberra Times reported.

“Premier Gutwein too. His job is to convince Scott Morrison. And from there we could go to Queensland. “

The developments on the other side of the trench are due to the fact that Australia has given a great indication of when international travel can be resumed. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced that he expects Australia’s borders to reopen on January 1, 2021.

The date was mentioned in yesterday’s federal budget update.

“From January 1 to June 30, 2021, the travel ban is expected to be lifted, but a two-week quarantine period is required to arrive in Australia,” the financial document said.

“This leads to the resumption of the arrival of temporary and permanent migrants, albeit at a lower level than normal overall.”

However, Mr. Frydenberg emphasized on Thursday that no political decisions had been made on this basis.

“With regard to the borders, it is expected that the return will be very gradual, that the quarantine will be applied and that you may involve some international students,” he said.

“This is work that we have done, but of course the environment is very fluid in relation to the corona virus. Therefore no decisions were made about the start dates for it. “

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