Who said abolish it? How about actually designing a system with enough slots so citizens can freely return? Other countries have done this, and controlled Covid, so why can Australia or NZ do it?
Australia eliminated travel restrictions for citizens and hotel quarantine for incoming travellers a while ago. At worst you’ll do 3 days home quarantine.
That’s not sensational though so it’s not reported on.
Also COVID case numbers have exploded since then so I can kind of understand NZ being hesitant to do the same.
