Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged the 'devastating' impact the Australian Covid outbreak was having on people's lives. She willed the country a speedy recovery, but warned the movement of people could complicate the recovery, she said.
Ardern she would not risk the hard work put in by the team of 5 million by keeping the bubble open when the risk was high from the Delta variant.
The Delta variant had materially changed the risk profile for the transtasman bubble, she said.
In the view of our health officials there is greater risk now than when they opened the travel bubble with Australia.
"Covid has changed, so we must," Ardern said.
Quarantine-free travel has been suspended from 11.59pm tonight and the bubble will be closed for at least the next eight weeks.
"There are now multiple outbreaks, and in differing stages of containment, that have forced three states into lockdown. The health risk to New Zealanders from these cases is increasing," Ardern said.
There will be flights home from all Australian territories for the next 7 days.
Ardern's message to Kiwis in Australia was: "Come home - we're giving you seven days".
In NSW, New Zealanders can only fly from Sydney and will have to be in MIQ for 14 days.
In Victoria, travelers must have a negative pre-departure test and must isolated until a negative day 3 test.
Ardern advised Kiwis not to travel to Australia in the next eight weeks.
Extra staff were being deployed to New Zealand's ports to check the pre-departure tests, Ardern said.
Ardern said many people would be disappointed to be separated from friends and family again.
Ardern said the Government did want the travel bubble to resume, but the outbreak needed to be contained before that could happen.
Ardern said the risk was growing so she was comfortable with the delay in informing the country of the bubble closing.
"When we have an immediate concern we pause straight away. Here we see the risk growing," she said.
"We don't trust Covid," she said when asked if she did not trust Australia's handling of it.
"There is no judgement here.
"We want Australia to succeed because it allows us to keep those arrangements alive."
Ardern said there would be some people not eligible to return during the seven days but the Government would work with them to get them home after that period.
She said if the Wallabies could arrive in the country in the next seven-days and make an economic case for it, they would not have to go into MIQ for two weeks.
Over 100 people had tried to get into New Zealand from parts of Australia where they should not have been during the bubble pause, Ardern said.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the overall risk from Australia was low but increasing.
He said the NSW outbreak was clearly not contained and the number of cases who were in the community while infectious was a concern.
The suspension would allow Australian officials to manage the outbreak, he said.
Bloomfield emphasised the transmissability of the Delta variant was hugely concerning and even contact tracing had been unable to get ahead of it, he said.
Bloomfield said an incursion of the Delta variant would require a swift and forceful response if we did have a case of the Delta variant and health officials were preparing for it.
He thought it would take eight weeks for NSW to get the outbreak down to acceptable levels and closing the bubble for eight weeks also gives people certainty about what was happening, he said.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said people should contact the airlines for questions about their flights.
He said Air New Zealand would be looking to put bigger planes on the existing routes and potentially adding extra flights.
He said they would be monitoring it every day to identify any pinch points.
There were extra staff in Australia checking pre-departure tests before the boarded flights home to New Zealand, Hipkins said.
