New Zealand and Australia may one day be ringed by a common border within which travellers could move without passing through Customs or immigration controls.
After more than a decade in the wilderness, the prospect gained new life yesterday after a meeting between Prime Minister John Key and his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd.
Mr Key said moves to speed up existing airport controls agreed by the two leaders were a building block to an eventual single border.
The concept is tied to moves towards a single economic market that includes a massive boost for transtasman investment, and biosecurity measures that will free resources to tighten controls at New Zealand's porous seaports.
The two prime ministers also agreed to lift development co-operation in the Pacific, to investigate the possibility of forming a joint Anzac rapid-response force, and to collaborate on a greenhouse emissions trading scheme.
The travel arrangements announced during Mr Key's state visit to Canberra are essentially a catch-up for New Zealand, introducing the SmartGate electronic e-passport kiosks already installed across the Tasman.
The system, which uses facial recognition technology and data stored on microchip to identify passengers, enables travellers to pass through airport controls without identity checks.
It will operate at Auckland from December - where passengers will take only eight minutes to pass through - and at Wellington and Christchurch next year.
There is no indication of when Dunedin and Queenstown may get the new technology Mr Key said Air New Zealand had told the Government its passengers would eventually be able to check in and process passports electronically at domestic-style kiosks for transtasman flights, and pass through the other end without human intervention.
Researchers are also developing a system to X-ray baggage on departure and send them across the Tasman, allowing border control officials three hours to examine them before the flight arrives.
Mr Key said the move to electronic processing was an important step and he and Mr Rudd wanted to be able to demonstrate that something of value could be delivered to their citizens.
He said that despite obstacles, including that 30% of those flying the Tasman were not New Zealanders or Australians, passport-free travel within a common border was a goal.
"It is easy to say and quite hard to do, but I think the announcements we've made today are a very positive step towards achieving that goal, and will make a discernible difference to travellers on both sides of the Tasman," Mr Key said.
"But, ultimately, it's not without the realms of possibility that there will be one point of entry [to New Zealand and Australia], and one point of exit."
Mr Rudd said a "large slab of progress" had been made in complex security-and immigration-related work.
"In terms of end-points [such as passport-free travel], it is important for us all to cross each hurdle one at a time," he said.
The biosecurity measures represent a shift away from New Zealand's present policy of 100% X-ray screening, relying instead on individual profiling to identify potential risks.
Low-risk passengers will be moved through Customs more quickly, based on a trial that showed only 4% of bags contained risky items, and that quarantine staff were able to identify low and high-risk passengers.
Instant fines for quarantine infringements will be doubled, to $400.
Mr Key said the changes would improve biosecurity and allow resources to be diverted elsewhere.
Dunedin International Airport Ltd chief executive John McCall told the Otago Daily Times he did not know when the technology might reach Otago.
Dunedin was already "quite efficient", as the airport usually processed only one flight at a time and the majority of people were processed in a relatively short time.
There was the possibility of cost reductions from initiatives such as screening baggage X-ray images while a flight was under way, but they might take some time to come through.
SmartGates would save money in staff and resources, but its introduction was also "some time away".
Destination Queenstown chief executive Stephen Pahl said he believed more of the process could be done by internet before passengers boarded.
