NZ and Aust ‘beating crap’ out of coronavirus

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand and Australia are ‘‘beating the crap’’ out of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, he says a transTasman border bubble with Australia could happen at level two and become a model to the world.

But he warned it would not work if quarantine was required.‘‘We can open the border on the basis there is non-transmission in both our populations. That is the secret of success we aspire to and the reason we floated the idea of the trans-Tasman bubble in the first place.’’

The bubble could become a reality as soon as it was possible to guarantee safety and security on both sides of the border, he said. ‘‘We are working on that now. ‘‘It is not a question of just having a bubble with Australia but how much activity that is happening in the bubble ... depending on medical and health security issues.’’

No-one could make the forecast about when exactly a bubble could be formed but New Zealand had got very close to saying it had got on top of the virus in terms of community transmission, he said.

‘‘We are not going to eliminate it, we are not going to eradicate it, but we are beating the crap out of it and so is Australia.’’

And in that circumstance, a bubble would not require quarantine, he said.

‘‘The minute you put in a 14-day quarantine requirement – forget it – it is not going to work.’’

Peters said he wanted to see maximum activity ‘‘as fast as we possibly can’’.

‘‘It would look like an exciting change to the lockdown, internationally. At least two countries would have it together. It could become a model to the world.’’

Given that 55 per cent of New Zealand’s tourists came from Australia, the sooner the country got some sense of normality within the Australian market, the better, he said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously said it would be the world’s smartest border and when asked what that might look like, Peters said:‘‘It sounds seriously aspirational. There are some people who would say it was the smartest. I wouldn’t make that plan.’’

It should be done with loopholes for it to fail, he said.

On Sunday, the Australian government expressed an ideal to strike a deal with New Zealand to ease travel restrictions in the second half of the year.

But when Ardern was asked about it on Monday, she suggested that New Zealanders and Australians looking forward to the resumption of trans-Tasman travel would have to manage their expectations.

She said the reopened border would look very different to what Kiwis are used to.

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