melbourne australia and new zealand have agreed to establish a transtasman bubble that would allow safe travel between the two countries australian prime minister scott morrison said on tuesday underlining that it was an important part of the economic recovery after the pandemic outbreakmorrison said that australia must now work to flatten the curve of rising unemployment pushing the need for workplaces and the broader economy to become covidsafe so they can reopen discussions are going on easing restrictions over the coming monthswe need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur these are precedent conditions to enable australia to relax baseline restrictions and enable australians to live and work in a covid19 safe economy he said while confirming that there were only 1000 active cases in the country and the daily infection rate has been lowthe tuesdays national cabinet chaired by morrison with state and territory leaders also included the new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern who is currently visiting australia to discuss the covid19 situationarden was invited by australia to discuss a transtasman bubble that would enable new zealanders and australians to freely travel between the two countrieswe agreed to start work on a transtasman covid19 safe travel zone easing travel restrictions between australia and new zealand morrison confirmed after the meetingthe travel arrangement between the two neighbouring countries would be put in place once it is safe with necessary health transport and other protocols to protect public healtha transtasman covidsafe travel zone would be mutually beneficial assisting our trade and economic recovery helping kickstart the tourism and transport sectors enhancing sporting contacts and reuniting families and friends ardern and morrison said in a jointstatementhe told the media after the meeting the bubble was still some time away but it was important to flag early as it was an important part of the economic recovery after the pandemic outbreakmorrison said he expected new zealand would be the first country australia would open its borders tothe total number of coronavirus cases in australia reached 6850 with 97 deaths whereas 1486 cases and 20 deaths were reported in new zealand