Live updates, March 22: A date for trans-Tasman bubble to be revealed on April

Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for March 22, bringing you the latest news throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz

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4.20pm: Ardern pledges to ‘tip the balance away from property investors and towards first home buyers’

Most of the discussion at the post-cabinet press conference has focused on the trans-Tasman travel bubble, but Jacinda Ardern has also trailed tomorrow morning’s announcements on housing. The goal, she said, was to “tilt the balance towards first time buyers and increase housing supply”.

Ardern laid out the grim reality of the housing market in 2021. “Decades of failure to invest. Increasing numbers of speculators in the market. Unsustainable house price growth, locking out first time buyers. Soaring rent levels and restrictive planning rules. Property investors now make up the biggest share of buyers in the market. Meanwhile house prices are rising much faster than wages, so homes continue to climb out of reach for many first time buyers, and the New Zealand housing market has become the least affordable in the OECD.”

She added: “It will take time to turn all this around, and unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. But there are things we can do.”

So what to expect tomorrow? “A suite of both urgent and longer term measures. The package will include steps to increase the supply of houses and improve affordability for home buyers and renters. It will aim to tip the balance away from property investors and towards first home buyers, and curb rampant speculation.”

We’ll have the announcement in full here at 9am tomorrow.

4.10pm: Ardern announces timetable (for announcing) travel bubble with Australia

A commencement date for a “green travel zone with Australia” will be revealed on April 6, Jacinda Ardern has announced. The criteria for opening the bubble are, she said, as follows:

1. The response framework for when there is an outbreak in Australia is in place.
2. Measures to contact trace visitors.
3. Technical issues including transiting passengers.
4. Appropriate regulatory measures.
5. Airlines, airports and agencies ready to go.
6. Director general of health has provided an updated assessment.

The approach now was to “work through an arrangement that sees us operating with some [Australian] states but not others”, Ardern said at the post-cabinet press conference.

Ardern confirmed that closing the travel bubble was likely to happen at very little notice if an outbreak occurred. “There may be occasions where we take a precautionary approach and travel ceases.” She added: “There will be an element of flyer beware.”

Asked about what quarantine-free travel would mean in terms of increasing the proportion of arrivals from higher-risk countries in MIQ hotels, Ardern said the government would consider to what extent the vacated spaces would be required for “emergency situations involving the bubble”. She said an announcement about MIQ capacity would be made at the same time the bubble date is revealed.

4.00pm: Ardern to speak on bubble with Australia

Via RNZ, here’s a livestream of today’s post-cabinet press…