Chambers of Commerce in both New Zealand and Australia are floating the idea of Wellington-Canberra trans-Tasman bubble to get the economies moving as soon as possible.
Last week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that a realistic date for the resumption of a trans-Tasman bubble - where people could travel between the two cities - was September at the earliest.
Head of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Michael Barnett this morning told TVNZ1's Breakfast a trans-Tasman bubble is important to help small and medium businesses suffering because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
A trial of the Wellington-Canberra bubble is hoped to be kicked off as soon as next month, and has already gained plenty of attention from Australians expressing interest.
Mr Barnett said it wasn't "too big a risk" and they weren't trying to jump ahead of keeping New Zealand safe, saying a group of experts are identifying risks and looking at how to mitigate them.
"When they've finished doing that and it's robust then we'll know that we can take the next step, so what we're saying is as soon as it's ready how do we do a proof of concept? Can we do an Auckland bang into Australia? Or can we pick some of the smaller destinations and make it work?
Her comments come after Winston Peters said he thinks we should already have trans-Tasman travel.
"I do think we need to look at it from a basis of Australia-New Zealand - $15 billion worth of trade, if I look at tourism, $3 billion worth of transactions from Australians coming and spending money here.
"I've got the winter season coming up, that's millions of dollars a day that could help save the small, medium businesses involved in travel, accommodation, cafe, restaurants and so on. We have to do something and this is our suggestion.
"It's [Covid-19] had a massive affect on the economy, we've got a huge amount of rebuilding to do and I think everybody's keen to do that. There are no bad ideas when it comes to recovery."
There have been some Australian airlines that have put up their hands, but as of yet New Zealand's national carrier Air New Zealand hasn't shown interest in putting on flights from Wellington to Canberra.
However, Mr Barnett added that hundreds of people have already expressed interest to be on the trial flights.
"There's always going to be a risk, but at some point we need to be able to test how robust we really are."
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