Kia ora to our Kiwi coronavirus cousins

And so it begins. The Great Normalisation, the first move of hope on our international stage.

It starts just where it should, with our close family across the ditch. The opening of a trans-Tasman travel bubble is a tribute to the governments, and the peoples, of Australia and New Zealand.

Ours are the two countries in the world that most people would choose to be in during the time of COVID. In their different ways, both nations have handled the virus in the manner their citizens wanted, with minimum virus deaths.

Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern are anything but natural partners: the centre right pragmatic but conservative Christian Australian, and the centre left woke-as-can-be New Zealand heroine of the global left. But they are both serious leaders with a lot invested in the two way relationship.

Both leaders, both countries, are aware of the economic damage the virus has done and the long-term debt it has imposed. Both are behind where they’d like to be on their vaccine rollouts but they are at a similar place, a good place, in terms of community transmission.

There are hardly two nations in the world more intimately linked than Australia and New Zealand. Our Constitution contains a unique standing offer for New Zealand to join. That is a historical ornament now, but it is also a sign of the closeness that should always exist between the two nations.

In recent years, our attitudes on some key matters have drifted apart (compare the contrasting stances of Canberra and Wellington towards both China and the US). But a week before Anzac Day is the right moment for the Anzacs to cement again their ancient, unbreakable kinship.

They beat us at men’s rugby, we beat them in women’s cricket. There’s always a balance in these things.

No one can know the future COVID will bring. It is hoped vaccination leads to progressive normalisation. But it may be that globalisation morphs a bit into trusted regionalisation.

No two countries ought to be able to trust each other more completely than Australia and New Zealand, whatever ephemeral political differences may arise from time to time.

This travel bubble implies enormous trust in each other’s medical and screening systems. It’s the first big break for their services sectors — especially tourism — that either has had since the pandemic broke out.

So much rides on its success. If we can’t manage easier travel with each other, it will be a long time before we can manage easier travel with anyone else.

Welcome back, Kiwi cousins. It’s good to see you again.