Queensland back of the line for NZ flights, says Australian PM

PM Scott Morrison has revealed he will likely not allow Queensland to receive flights from New Zealand because of the state’s insistence on hotel quarantine for domestic travel. The PM argued he couldn’t justify allowing trans-Tasman flights into Brisbane if it would mean precious hotel quarantine rooms were taken up by Kiwi arrivals. The intervention came on the day Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed he wouldn’t open his domestic borders to NSW until after the state’s election on 31 October. Speaking on Adelaide’s FiveAA radio on Thursday morning, PM Morrison said, “I would see South Australia as well as NSW in the front end of that arrangement because they’ve both taken their borders down. For states who still have borders up and are insisting on quarantine for people, say, in Sydney to go to Brisbane, we can’t have people from New Zealand coming in and taking up those [hotel quarantine] places for Australians coming home [from overseas].” PM Morrison’s words come alongside new comments by New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern hinting travel between the two countries could be close, and begin with one-way flights from New Zealand to Australia.<br/>