Today's announcement of Queensland opening its border to Kiwis doesn't change New Zealand's closed-border approach, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today.
The Australian state is the latest, following NSW, Northern Territory, Victoria and Tasmania, to allow Kiwis to enter without undergoing quarantine.
However, New Zealanders must quarantine on return to New Zealand.
Ardern said the opening of Queensland was "not different to what we've seen with other openings".
From December 12 Kiwis can fly to the Australian state without having to quarantine there. (Source: Other)
"It doesn't change our approach, when we reopen we'll be looking to do that with Australia as a whole and we'll need to have protocols in place for how that will work.
"Individual states reopening doesn't change our approach for now."
A travel bubble with Australia was "something we've been working very diligently on", Ardern said, however, Australia's state-by-state approach to Covid created complications for New Zealand.
"One of the issues has been rather than an all-of-Australia approach, Australia did chose to move state-by-state.
"That means New Zealand would have to navigate whether or not we would have to close our border in an outbreak, dependent on how other states react," Ardern said.
"I am optimistic that we will certainly have that openly sometime in the future."
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