Peters talks up travel bubble with Aus
Transtasman flights to Tasmania can be safely done now, and international students could safely fly in to New Zealand and be put into quarantine, Winston Peters says.
The Deputy Prime Minister said both measures would boost the economy, which has been devastated by Covid-19.
He has been pushing for a transtasman bubble as well as a move to alert level 1 immediately.
Officials have been working on the logistics to keep transtasman travel safe. A draft blueprint is expected to go to New Zealand and Australian governments at the start of June, and a timetable for flights to be ready in July is being worked on.
Peters said it was safe to have transtasman flights with some Australian states now, adding that was the view of Premier of
Tasmania Peter Gutwein, who wanted to revive the 1990s flights between the countries.
“Look at the Queensland results. Look at the Northern Territory results. They exceed ours. We’ve got to take all the expert advice into consideration. But be sure of this — all that medical advice is only so sound while we can pay for the outcome of this. And that’s what I’m concerned about.”
He said a travel bubble with New Zealand and the Pacific was also being looked at, especially in light of the fact that many Pacific economies rely on tourism.
But he said he was cautious about opening flights between the countries.
“The last thing we want to do is imperil the populations of those countries, like Niue, like the Cook Islands, like Samoa.”