Now, don’t go getting too worked up, BFD readers. I mean, when I read the headline, Australia to ‘reconnect’ with NZ first, my curiosity was immediately piqued, too.
But, no, Scott Morrison isn’t working on some dastardly scheme to bring down New Zealand’s coalition government by getting in cahoots with Winston Peters. Hard luck, there.
No, instead, it’s a statement of what would be a bleeding obvious strategy in any case: when it comes to re-opening Australia’s borders, our cousins across the Tasman get first dibs.
New Zealand will “undoubtedly” be the first country Australia “reconnects” with, Scott Morrison says, provided the government is confident the public’s safety will not be put at risk.
Hmm. Does that mean “back-door” access for people-smuggling clients must be closed off first? Perhaps Peter Dutton wants a written guarantee that Behrouz Boochani won’t come slithering across the Tasman as soon as the borders are re-opened?
Jokes aside, the Australian government will almost certainly want reassurance that Jacinda Ardern won’t make any more ad-hoc policy decisions based on whatever her “bubble” of little chums just reckon.
The Prime Minister did not put a timeline on when travel between the two nations would restart but said it was something being worked through patiently.
Obviously they’re having to use the coloured crayons and flash-cards to communicate effectively with the New Zealand prime minister.
Meanwhile the unelected kidney specialist who’s telling Australians what they can and can’t do is putting the kybosh on us getting our hopes up any time soon.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has said while it is “very hard” to estimate the timeframes for relaxing COVID-19 measures, he doesn’t expect Australia to open its borders in the next three to four months.
Dr Murphy told an inquiry into the government’s response to the crisis on Thursday the one exception could be New Zealand, but at this stage such an arrangement was “quite speculative”.
Dr Murphy said the government was concerned about a second wave of infections, as has occurred in Singapore, and said any relaxing of physical distancing measures would require stronger public health measures to counterbalance the risk.
While health officers are “certainly not considering large-scale gatherings” Dr Murphy said small-scale gatherings may be allowed if measures were relaxed.
Wow. Praise be to our technocratic overlords. At this rate, with good behaviour, I might even be allowed out for the next BFD Christmas knees-up.
Providing your lot keep the appropriate social distance, of course.
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