Transport minister stood down
Michael Wood has been stood down as Minister of Transport after it was revealed he owns about $13,000 of Auckland Airport shares but failed to declare them immediately when he became an MP or took up the transport portfolio.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins took the action on June 6 after describing Wood’s ownership of the stock while he was regulating the aviation industry as “not acceptable”.
Kieran McAnulty has been given the transport portfolio on an acting basis while Wood resolves any remaining issues around his conflicts.
Wood, pictured, reportedly purchased the shares in the 1990s and declared them to the Cabinet Office when he became a minister in 2020.
However, he did not declare them in the public register of MPs’ assets and other interests until 2022.
Wood says he initially thought the shares were held in a trust and that he did not have to declare them.
He first declared them with the Cabinet Office as they potentially conflicted with his transport portfolio, which had responsibility for the aviation sector’s regulation before that role was shifted to an associate minister in June 2022.
It has been revealed Wood has been told by Cabinet officials to sell his airport shares “half a dozen times” since 2020, reports the NZ Herald.
Hipkins adds Wood appears to lack a “good explanation” for failing to do so and that it was “one of those life admin tasks that he doesn’t seem to have gotten around to”.
“I don’t think that that’s acceptable, having indicated back in 2020 that he was intending to dispose of them, he should have done that,” Hipkins told the NZ Herald.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says Wood should have been stood down as soon as the Prime Minister first became aware of the situation, while Act leader David Seymour believes Wood should not be allowed to continue as a minister.
Wood has retained his workplace relations and Minister for Auckland portfolios and Hipkins has left the door open for him to return to his transport duties once he has cleaned up the mess around his airport shareholding.
Wood says he began the process of selling the shares last year but the process stalled after he needed to get information from the share register.
“In the reality of the fairly busy life that I have, I didn’t get back to it,” Wood explains. “Now, that’s not an excuse, that’s the honest answer.”
Following his meeting with Hipkins on June 6, Wood says he plans to sell the shares and correct previous editions of Parliament’s pecuniary interests register to identify he has owned the shares the entire time he has been an MP.
