In today's [October 2, 2020] media briefing, the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack announced that a trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia had been agreed upon.
He said:
"The establishment of a travel zone between Australia and New Zealand has been finalised.
"Today I’m announcing the first stage of this arrangement, under which quarantine-free travel will be possible from New Zealand to NSW and the Northern Territory from Friday 16 October, 12.01am to be precise.
"This will allow New Zealanders and other residents in New Zealand who have not been in an area designated as a Covid-19 hot spot in New Zealand in the preceding 14 days to travel quarantine-free to Australia, so there is a three x three definition.
"It is three days with [fewer] than three cases. We are making sure that for those people who have been in New Zealand in that 14-day period, they are welcome to come to the Northern Territory, welcome to come to NSW, and this is the first stage in what we hope to see as a trans-Tasman bubble between the two countries stopping not just at that state and that territory."
On the other hand, arrangements for NSW and NT residents to go to NZ under the trans-Tasman travel bubble are still to be firmed up by the NZ government.
The good news for NSW is that for seven days in a row, it did not have a COVID case by community transmission. There were four positive cases from hotel quarantine. This news is welcomed by all looking at travelling to Queensland.
On November 1st, the Queensland border will be open to NSW residents but this is subject that no community transmission case occurs between now and that date.
In the meantime, South Australia and ACT borders are now open to NSW residents, with Northern Territory opening its doors on October 9.
Victoria is open to NSW residents; however, they need a permit to come back to NSW. Tasmania and Western Australia borders remain closed to NSW. Tasmania is considering to open its border in December.
The situation in Victoria continues to improve with single digit community transmission cases, eg 7 and two deaths.