New Zealand agrees travel deal with Australia but won’t open borders to tourists for ‘a long time’

Jacinda Ardern attends Australian Cabinet meeting to discuss resuming Tasman Sea route

Australia and New Zealand have agreed to look at resuming travel between the two countries, with its leaders stressing that this is still some way off.

Both countries have shut their borders to non-citizens for more than a month and have made people returning from overseas go into quarantine.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, said the travel agreement between Australia and New Zealand would not begin immediately.

Ms Ardern became the first world leader for more than 60 years to join an Australian Cabinet meeting, appearing via video link on Tuesday to discuss travel across the Tasman Sea.

Following the meeting, Ms Ardern said: "When we feel comfortable and confident that we both won't receive cases from Australia, but equally that we won't export them, then that will be the time to move.”

"Neither of us want cases of COVID coming between our countries,” she added.

Ms Ardern also said that New Zealand’s borders would remain closed to the rest of the world for “a long time”.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said that travel across the Tasman Sea would be the first of the country’s overseas travel routes to reopen.

"When we are seeing Australians travel from Melbourne to Cairns, at about that time I would expect everything being equal we would be able to fly from Melbourne to Auckland or Christchurch,” he told reporters.

Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas Airways Ltd, stated that regular flights between the countries could start soon after domestic flights reopened in Australia.

"It could be a very good model for the international market opening up in phases," he said.

Both Australia and New Zealand have a coronavirus mortality rate of one per cent, far below most other countries.

Australia has recorded around 6,800 Covid-19 cases and 96 fatalities, while New Zealand has had 1,137 infections and 20 deaths from the virus.

Additional reporting from Reuters