Covid-19 has cost Queensland up to $AU7 billion in lost tourism, and it needs New Zealand visitors now, according to Queensland's Tourism Industry Council.
Australian leaders are suggesting New South Wales could be the first quarantine-free destination for New Zealanders.
But Queensland is desperate to get in on the bubble and its Tourism Industry Council boss Daniel Gschwind believes waiting for zero community cases before opening the borders is unrealistic, and it's about managing risk.
"New Zealand is a very important market for us, for Queensland, nearly half of the holiday visitors that come from New Zealand to Australia come to Queensland… that's a quarter of a million people… It is a big market and you bring a lot of value to our economy," Gschwind told Checkpoint.
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"We have an excellent [Covid-19] record here in Queensland, we have very few cases and no infections for instance in the last 24 hours, so we're in a very good space.
"We have measures in place, we have our restrictions in place, but pretty relaxed at the moment and we, we have a very good track record, as does New Zealand. So it's an obvious partnership that could be formed and certainly would be beneficial to both sides of the Tasman," he said.
"I think the risk is very manageable. It's not as if we have many passengers that are in international airports at the moment, there's only a handful every day. And they're certainly very well managed and guided into quarantine hotels if they arise from overseas.
"Our view is that with zero transmissions the benchmark for state borders here in Australia, that is probably a threshold that is very hard to achieve in the next few months, possibly years, so we're very keen to see more suppression-based approach rather than elimination-based approach.
"The support management measures have to be considered for their effectiveness and they have proven to be very effective here in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia."