Over the weekend we reported on the growing desire across the ditch for some kind of trans-Tasman travel bubble.

It was one of the suggestions made by Peter Beattie, previously premier of the state of Queensland to help restart that state's economy, post covid.

And given that Queensland...and also West Australia and come to that Northern Territories and the South have done a pretty good job of containing the virus, I'm attracted to the idea.

It would probably be worth a little more to the Aussies than to us, so we'd be doing them a bit of a favour.

On an annual basis visitor numbers are about 1.4 million each way but with Victoria definitely out and New South Wales a little iffy, the economic benefit of a bubble in pure numbers would probably favour the other side.

So while it would definitely be good for business here to have the Ockers flying in, the downside is we'd probably be exposing ourselves to a slightly higher risk than them.

Broadly speaking, I'm OK with a bubble, or I was, until I heard they're sending another batch of 501 deportees this week, 30 or so convicted crims.

At a time when we're stretched to the max accommodating and quarantining our own people coming home, our supposed mates and allies across the ditch are still sending their bad guys here, on the flimsiest pretext.

I don't want to re-litigate the deportation policy, it stinks, it always has, always will.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, the people they send back haven't been New Zealanders for years.

They grew up and became criminals in Australia.

They have few, if any contacts here.

Chris Hipkins was right when he told Mike Yardley yesterday it's the Australians dumping their problems on us.

It's bad enough at any other time, but to be doing it right now...in the midst of this global crisis...is appalling.

It's not the way a mate would behave...especially not a mate who's looking for a favour.