PM wants trans-Tasman bubble to work two ways as quarantine-free flights resume from NZ to Aus

The PM has called on New Zealand to allow quarantine free travel to Aussies after reinstating the one-way trans-Tasman travel bubble.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called on New Zealand to open up to Australians in the same way the nation has for Kiwis, as he reinstated the one-way travel bubble.

Currently, New Zealanders are able to enter Australia without needing to do any time in hotel quarantine, but the same cannot be said for Aussies looking to travel over the ditch.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the PM said the decision had always been down to Wellington, insisting he was “happy” for New Zealand to open its borders whenever it saw fit.

“If the New Zealand government doesn’t wish Australians to visit New Zealand and spend money in Queenstown or Wellington or other parts of the country, that’s a matter for them,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“But if Australians can’t go to Queenstown, I’m hoping they’ll go to Cairns.”

The travel bubble was reinstated on Tuesday night, after Auckland’s hotspot status was removed following an outbreak in Auckland.

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the situation in Auckland had improved. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

More than 1.7 million Kiwis emerged from a strict week-long lockdown in the nation’s biggest city on Sunday as health authorities rushed to contain a COVID cluster that broke out at a high school.

Later a case of the highly contagious UK variant was detected.

Updated advice received on Tuesday from New Zealand officials suggested the hotspot status be lifted and “green flights” should resume from 11.59pm on March 11.

Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly has been monitoring the situation and said it had “improved greatly”, with “minimal risk” remaining from the Auckland cluster.

A statement from the Department of Health and Professor Kelly outlined that states or territories were welcome to introduce their own conditions that might differ to the national advice.

“All travellers are advised to check the arrangements in both their place of arrival and place of final destination before they travel,” Professor Kelly said in the statement.

Australian health authorities applauded New Zealand’s contact tracing efforts.

“New Zealand’s contact tracing efforts showed the recent case identified, unrelated to the Auckland cluster, posed a low risk of COVID-19 spreading in Australia,” Professor Kelly said.

“The Australian government will continue to work closely with colleagues in the New Zealand Ministry of Health to monitor and assess the public health risk posed by COVID-19.”

The trans-Tasman bubble will be reinstated. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Australian residents are still not allowed to fly to New Zealand under the current international travel ban, and any Kiwis who do travel to Australia will also have to complete 14 days quarantine on return.

Australia started taking green flights earlier in the year. They were halted when cases of the South African variant were detected in hotel quarantine in Auckland.

They were reinstated at the beginning of February, just a couple of weeks before the high school cluster in Auckland become known.

The bubble was swiftly halted again.

Three Air New Zealand flights are scheduled to touch down in Sydney on Thursday hours before the bubble ban is lifted.

There are no flights scheduled to arrive on Friday at this stage.