Judith Collins says if a trans-Tasman bubble does not open soon, "we're going to end up with the death of Queenstown", and it will be Jacinda Ardern's fault.
National today launched a petition to urge the Government to open up to Australia.
"There’s no good reason why we can’t have quarantine-free travel with Australia right now," Collins said. "Australia did it for New Zealanders last October, but our Government won’t return the favour."
Australia has shut its doors to New Zealand at times temporarily over Covid outbreaks.
"Australia has proven it can be done safely, but after nine months and 12 rounds of talks our Government still hasn’t moved."
Collins said towns in New Zealand dependent on tourism were suffering.
"If the Prime Minister doesn't essentially pull-finger and get on with this, we're going to end up with the death of Queenstown - on her."
"We need to rebuild our tourism industry before it dies and we also need to reunite family members."
This morning, Professor Michael Baker told Breakfast "the real risk now of infection is incredibly low from all of Australia most of the time".
"The real challenge, the real risk, is a different one.
"If we take them out, then suddenly we have a lot more high-risk people coming from 'red zone' countries."
Yesterday, Ardern was asked about the possibility of a Trans-Tasman bubble.
She said the previous arrangement New Zealand was working on was for the whole of Australia.
"Since then we've had states open up, so we're starting again with those plans. It does mean we need to set up different protocols.
She said New Zealand needed to be prepared if a bubble did open and flights needed to shut down over issues in Australia, "you would certainly hear concerns over people being stranded".
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