Editorial
Coronavirus: Travel to boost economy, jobs
It’s a tempting thought. After weeks of isolation at home, juggling work and homeschooling, the prospect of a holiday break to the winter sun of Port Douglas or the New Zealand snowfields would lift the spirits of many people on both sides of the ditch. Don’t book yet. Scott Morrison and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made clear, after the latter joined the national cabinet on Tuesday, that a “trans-Tasman bubble” permitting two-way travel between Australia and New Zealand would not be happening in the next week or two. It is likely to happen in coming months, however, long before Australians and New Zealanders have the opportunity to spread their wings to Europe, North America or Asia. As Mr Morrison said, trans-Tasman travel should be possible by the time Melburnians were free to fly to Cairns. And he floated the possibility of families being free to holiday interstate by the end of the school term. The winter vacation in most states is in early July. It was important to flag trans-Tasman travel, the Prime Minister said, as “part of the road back’’.
That road will involve supporting the return of a million Australians to jobs lost in March and last month. It is time to arrest the impact of the pandemic on jobs and productivity. About 440,000 of the jobs lost have been in the accommodation and food services sectors. And as Robin Ironside reports, employees stood down at Qantas and Jetstar will remain without work through to the end of next month, with flight cancellations extended until then. International flights are not expected to resume before August, possibly much later. In the absence of visitors from around the globe, a flurry of holidaying within states, between states and across the Tasman would be a shot in the arm to employment, profits and government revenue. Workers in the airline, hospitality, accommodation, car hire, cafe and restaurant and theme park industries in both countries, who have been among those hardest hit by the economic effects of coronavirus, would benefit.
New Zealand, which faces an election in September, has imposed an even stricter lockdown than Australia, which is why its economic effects are likely to be even more severe. Calls are growing across the Tasman to fire up economic activity as soon as possible. Both countries have excelled at containing the coronavirus. Much will depend on that success continuing. On Tuesday, New Zealand recorded its second day in a row of no new COVID-19 cases. The time to move, as Ms Ardern said after the national cabinet meeting, will be when New Zealand is comfortable and confident that it would not receive new cases of COVID-19 from Australia and that it would not export new cases. Australians feel the same way. The scheme would work only when the states were ready to lift border restrictions. One attraction of the safe “bubble”, as Ms Ardern said, would be no need for quarantining at either end.
In a normal year, about 1.2 million Australians holiday across the Tasman, with 1.6 million Kiwis holidaying here. Ms Ardern’s attendance at Tuesday’s meeting was the first time a New Zealand prime minister has joined a meeting of Australia’s federal, state and territory leaders since John Curtin was prime minister. The “safe bubble” would be a sensible extension of the close, strong ties between Australia and New Zealand.