International border opens for Australia New Zealand travel bubble
Australia’s international travel ban has been lifted for New Zealand meaning people can now legally visit at any time.
NSW
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Australia’s international travel ban has been lifted for New Zealand meaning people can legally visit at any time.
Travellers would still be required to quarantine in New Zealand, but the move by Australia effectively paves the way for completely open travel as soon as the Kiwi government decides to extend the travel bubble between the two countries.
The federal government on Monday made changes to the emergency biosecurity laws to allow anyone who has been in Australia for at least 14 days to be able to travel “directly to New Zealand”.
Previously Australians leaving the country for any reason were required to gain an exemption to do so.
Australia has already lifted the quarantine requirement for anyone travelling from New Zealand, but there is not yet a reciprocal arrangement.
However, Australians will not find out if they can visit New Zealand without quarantining until next month after the Kiwis announced they needed more time to set up the Trans-Tasman travel bubble.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would reveal the date for the start of quarantine-travel between the two countries on April 6.
“We don’t have a date for you,” Ms Ardern said at a press conference.
Ms Ardern said more time was needed to finalise the agreement and determine arrangements for contact tracing and management of isolation figures.
When asked about the travel bubble, Ms Ardern on Monday said: “I have said that it is close — that we do expect to be in the position to open up the bubble soon.”
Ms Ardern said the initial country-to-country negotiations had turned to state-by-state discussions as the earlier process had taken too long.
“We’ve had 12 gatherings of our officials, between the two countries, to work on country-to-country arrangement,” she said.
“We’ve since said: ‘Look, let’s just move state by state because it’s actually just taking a bit too much work, a bit too difficult to get that country-to-country arrangement’.
“Let’s just operate as Australia has been operating with us. That’s helping to speed this up.”
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