Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison says a trans-Tasman bubble with his nation is is the hands of the New Zealand Government.
It comes as National's Judith Collins continues calls to open New Zealand's borders to visitors across the ditch.
"I think we can all look at this and say, 'Australia is able to open their borders to New Zealanders and they have been able to close them when there's any Covid cases over here, we could do the same,'" Collins told Breakfast this morning.
"If the Aussies can do it, surely we can do it better. They've had one with us since October and they seem to be able to manage. You know we can do it better than them — I'm sure we can."
It comes after Australia announced overnight it would re-introduce quarantine-free travel for Kiwis again after it was temporarily halted during the latest Auckland Covid-19 outbreak.
Morrison said he's happy for borders between the nations to open, but it's a matter for the New Zealand Government.
"If the New Zealand Government doesn't wish Australians to visit New Zealand and visit Queenstown or Wellington or other parts of the country then that's a matter for them, it’s always a matter for them," he said.
"I'm happy for them to open it up as soon as the Prime Minister and her Government would like to do that — and we've very had amicable conversations about this.
"Australia is open to New Zealand and has been for some time, with the exception of a couple of brief pauses in that arrangement, and that's benefiting our economy, it’s benefiting particularly our travel and tourism industry and aviation sector which has been hard hit by the pandemic, but if Australians can't go to Queenstown I'm hoping they're going to Cairns."
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