Kiwis who travelled to NSW as part of ‘bubble’ have shut into Victoria

The blame game over the burst travel bubble has ramped up as authorities desperately try to track down the 17 Kiwis who entered Victoria after flying to NSW.

Victorian authorities spent Saturday scrambling to contact 17 Kiwis who slipped into the state after first flying into a new travel bubble between NSW and New Zealand.

Premier Daniel Andrews hit out at Border Force for delays in sending a passenger manifest after the group boarded a domestic flight from Sydney to Melbourne.

He said the state didn’t want to take part in arrangement with NZ for now, and that although it appeared the Kiwis had done nothing wrong — because Victoria’s borders are open — it was against the intent of the “bubble” and authorities wanted to make sure the tourists knew about our restrictions.

Federal MPs hit back, saying Professor Brett Sutton was present at a meeting of chief health ministers early in the week when the prospect of onward travel by New Zealand travellers was mentioned.

When asked about this, Prof Sutton indicated he was not at the Monday meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee when the matter was raised for discussion.

In a strange twist, acting immigration Minister Alan Tudge said he could confirm that Prof Sutton “was the Victorian representative on the AHPPC meeting last Monday where the matter of domestic onward travel of NZ arrivals was discussed”.

“Prof Sutton did not raise any concerns,” he said.

The federal health department also confirmed Prof Sutton represented Victoria at Monday’s meeting of the AHPPC.

However, the Herald Sun understands Prof Sutton wasn’t present for the part of the meeting in which travel bubble onward travel was discussed.

Mr Andrews said it wasn’t clear whether the Kiwi travellers were actually Australians returning to live here, or were tourists.

But he said authorities wanted to explain the rules for Victoria in place and that the state didn’t appreciate “17 people turning up on our doorstep without any notice”.

“We presume they’re in metropolitan Melbourne,” he said.

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