SA seeks reciprocal travel deal

ADELAIDE: South Australia is urgently seeking a reciprocal travel bubble agreement with New Zealand, arguing it deserves special treatment to allow people to travel across the Tasman without quarantining.

Premier Steven Marshall has written to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern seeking a twoway travel deal after 12 New Zealanders arrived in South Australia this week and were forced into quarantine.

They came to Australia under a federal Governmentnegotiated oneway travel bubble with New Zealand allowing its citizens to enter New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

But many of those travellers took domestic flights from Sydney to other states not in the bubble, including SA, Western Australia and Queensland.

After ordering them into quarantine, SA relented on Tuesday and released them into the community, bringing the state into the travel bubble and clearing the way for more to follow.

Marshall said SA now wanted to go one step further and secure permission for people to travel from South Australia to New Zealand and for returning New Zealanders not to have to quarantine when they arrived home.

He said South Australia’s excellent performance in combating Covid19 was deserving of special treatment from Ardern.

‘‘We don’t serve any threat to New Zealand whatsoever,’’ he told reporters yesterday.

‘‘So I’ve put that in writing, asking her to reciprocate. I’ve laid out the case for South Australia having a different arrangement from other parts of the country.

‘‘I hope she looks at that letter, considers the evidence and then moves to an arrangement.’’

Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham was also on board, hoping New Zealand would agree to a deal.

‘‘This would be an enticing opportunity for Kiwis to holiday, reunite and boost the economy in SA,’’ he said.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles says it is too soon to determine the genomic identification of the strain that infected a crew member on MV

Sofrana Surville.

The ship anchored off Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast after authorities on Tuesday prevented it docking in Brisbane.

Health officials are preparing to test the 19 crew members on the vessel.

There are no confirmed cases on the ship.

Sofrana Surville sailed from New Zealand this month with fresh crew from the Philippines before stopping at Noumea in New Caledonia.

New Zealand alerted Australian officials the crew could be infected with coronavirus on Tuesday after an engineer who worked on that ship and another one tested positive.

Queensland health officials have asked New Zealand authorities for more information about the ship and crew. — AAP/Reuters