In a moment I’ll bring you all the updates on the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, but first to New Zealand. Elle Hunt reports that the opposition National party is ramping up pressure on the government to introduce quarantine-free travel with Australia, saying the risk of transmission of Covid-19 is “extraordinarily lowâ€.
Currently New Zealanders can travel to Australia without having to spend 14 days in a quarantine facility, but not vice versa due to irregular community outbreaks in Australia.
Though a two-way bubble had been planned for the first quarter of 2021, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said the timeline is now unrealistic as Australia moves from a country-to-country model to a state-by-state one.
National leader Judith Collins has said the one-way bubble is a case of New Zealand’s government refusing to “return the favourâ€. The National party has launched a petition calling for two-way travel to begin immediately.
Its policy would require Australians to provide a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before departure, and would allow New Zealand to impose quarantine requirements in the event of an outbreak.
The proposal is likely to be popular as Kiwis hang out for an overseas holiday. In particular parts of New Zealand’s struggling tourism industry sees free travel with Australia as their best shot at survival while Covid restrictions remain mostly in place.