Travellers will still have to beware of getting stranded in the event of a Covid-19 outbreak on either side of the Tasman, even with a travel bubble, Jacinda Ardern has said.
The Prime Minister told Breakfast a bubble was close as New Zealand had moved to negotiating a state-by-state arrangement, with country-to-country negotiations proving too difficult.
Any bubble would have to "pause" in an event of the outbreak in either Australia or New Zealand, Ardern said.
“It is fair to say since we moved away and said to health officials those country-to-country negotiations which we’ve been doing, and we’ve had 12 gatherings of our officials between the two countries, to work on a country-to-country arrangement,” she said.
“We’ve said ‘let’s look just move to state-by-state’ because it’s actually just taking a bit too much work, a bit too difficult.”
“Let’s just operate as Australia has been operating with us, that’s helping to speed things up.”
Ardern said any trans-Tasman bubble arrangement would need to be able to be paused in the event of an outbreak.
“I’ll give you an example of why we had been working country-to-country, it makes it easier if you have a situation where there’s an outbreak on either side, you can work together on the way you’re going to deal with that,” she said.
“By going state-by-state, is it going to mean we can move faster but there will be an element that we’ll have to say to travellers beware, we may have to pause if there is an outbreak on either side.
“That means people could become stranded but we’re willing to factor that into our thinking, work it through. Travellers might have to take that [getting stranded] into account.”
Ardern said the Government would allow for a lack of compliance around Covid-19 protocols when planning for Australians coming to Aotearoa.
“These are some of the things Cabinet is working through, what’s the role of testing, what’s the role of contact tracing system to make sure that it’s workable with people coming in from overseas,” she said.
“What we have to factor in is you’re never going to have perfect compliance with everything.”
Ardern said she thinks the risk of importing Covid-19 cases from Australia was low, with nine cases having come through managed isolation from Australia since April.
“Having said that we’ve also had closures on the Australian side when they have had outbreaks
“If we see something of concern, we have got an arrangement where we can pause, where we can stop travel and make sure we have got plans in for anyone who is on the way.
“Keep in mind, if something goes wrong, if there is an outbreak we do not have capacity in our managed isolation for everyone who would be in Australia to come back.
The Prime Minister said it was likely that New Zealanders in Australia “would have to shelter in place”, in the event of an outbreak, even with a bubble.
Ardern said people, even those working a beleaguered tourism industry would appreciate that Cabinet needed to ensure safety in any trans-Tasman bubble.
"All of this is very difficult, it is not insurmountable,” she said.
“At the end of last year we said we do want to have a trans-Tasman bubble, we were working towards a first quarter opening and then Australia had an outbreak.
“We need to do this safely and well and it hasn’t been straightforward, but I think people appreciate we want to get the balance right between risk, but also understanding we want to take the opportunity.”
SHARE ME