Bubble trouble brews over trans-Tasman travel

The Government appears to be laying the lack of progress on the transTasman travel bubble squarely at Australia’s feet.

Yesterday, Covid-19 recovery Minister Chris Hipkins appeared ambivalent about the prospects of a bubble despite, as Stuff revealed, confirming in an answer to a written parliamentary question that two weeks ago New Zealand and Australian officials were ‘‘concluding’’ talks on quarantine-free travel arrangements.

‘‘Recent developments in Australia, around the way they handle travel between New Zealand and Australia, where there is an outbreak or even a single community case, means that the trans-Tasman bubble is proceeding very slowly,’’

Hipkins told reporters yesterday.

‘‘It is a little bit frustrating, but we don’t want to be in the position that we are at the moment where people are in the air on their way to Australia and find that Australians have changed the rules.

Hipkins’ prevarication continued in the House, claiming one of the difficulties in making arrangements was sorting out airport safety – something the Government has been saying for months. ‘‘One of the challenges around any arrangements like that is that you have to make sure that you’re keeping safezone travellers completely separate from those who are coming from non-safe zones,’’ Hipkins said.

Yet, outside of Government, industry players appear to be prepared for quarantine-free travel to launch.

Australian airline Qantas yesterday said it expected to restart regular flights to New

Zealand by July, while Air New Zealand said it was remaining flexible about a possible date.

A spokeswoman for Christchurch International Airport said it already had a process for managing quarantine-free travel, including separating flight schedules and cleaning protocols.

‘‘This has been approved by the relevant government authorities, is robust and is ready to go now,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘In addition, we are undertaking construction to create two separate pathways through the terminal to enable simultaneous processing of passengers.’’

Other international airports are also understood to be ready for any bubble arrangement.

But Hipkins suggested final rules and protocols were yet to be established.

‘‘We have to have some pretty clear rules and protocols in place around that and at this point, that’s not progressing particularly well,’’ he said.

‘‘The other barrier is state-bystate consideration is something the federal Australian government have indicated that they wouldn’t be willing to do.’’

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, in a speech yesterday, said the company was ‘‘targeting July for a material increase in New Zealand flights’’, and transTasman travel should be possible once frontline quarantine workers were vaccinated against Covid-19.

‘‘That will mean that the outbreaks that we’ve seen in New Zealand and Australia are very, very unlikely ... which brings certainty and stability in opening up the travel bubble,’’ Joyce said.

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran displayed less certainty than his Australian counterpart, saying he did not know when quarantine-free travel might be possible.