Jacinda Ardern says trans-Tasman bubble could open in September, but Winston Peters wanted it open yesterday

Thursday, 28 May 2020

Winston Peters will front media to talk about water reforms.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there is a “realistic” prospect that a trans-Tasman bubble could be in place by September.

Ardern on Thursday agreed with a high-powered business group examining the potential of a bubble between New Zealand and Australia, which said such an arrangement could be in place by September.

“I think that could be realistic. I have been careful about putting down specific dates. But I have been very focused on making sure that as soon as we are ready then we can move.'

Ardern said health officials and epidemiologists would need to be “comfortable” that New Zealand and Australia won’t be a risk to one another “before we’re ready to go”.

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Coronet Peak in Queenstown, pictured last year. Skifield owners say the slopes will be quiet without Australians.

She said “September is realistic” but she wouldn’t give a specific date for when the bubble could be in place.

Ardern's timeframe was at odds with the one presented by her deputy, Winston Peters.

In the House, Peters was asked by National deputy leader Nikki Kaye whether he had a date he would like to see the bubble open.

He replied, 'yesterday'.

Peters also said he would like flights to resume to Tasmania. He also said international students could fly to New Zealand and quarantine safely, a lifeline for the international education sector.

NZ First has recently been taking starkly different positions from Labour on matters relating to the lockdown.

On Wednesday, Peters declared that New Zealand should already be down at alert Level 1 and that the economic fallout from Covid-19 was now the enemy, not the virus itself.

But this was at odds with comments from Ardern who on Monday said Cabinet would begin looking at the Level 2 settings on June 8 and would make a decision on whether to move to Level 1, no later than June 22.

“We are keeping watch on how we are tracking in the meantime,” she said.

Skifield owners say Australians form a large part of their market and they are disappointed the trans-Tasman link will not reopen in July.

Bridget Legnavsky, general manager at Cardrona Alpine Resort in Wanaka, said Australian skiers were usually 30 to 40 per cent of their customer base and their winter season would be 'much quieter' without them.

She said it was 'really important' that Government give advance notice of opening borders so they and other businesses could hire staff for spring.

'There's been so much speculation and it's very hard on the workers. We need some certainty to plan.'

Paul Anderson, chief executive of NZSki, said without overseas visitors, patronage this year would be no more than 40 per cent of normal for their Coronet Peak and Remarkables fields in Queenstown, and 70 to 80 per cent at Mt Hutt in Mid-Canterbury. Australians are their biggest overseas market.

But an early September trans-Tasman link, well published in advance, could still mean several weeks of skiing as they would be open until October, Anderson said.