The Labour Party’s Michael Wood has been temporarily stood down from his role as Minister for Transport until a possible conflict of interest involving Auckland Airport is resolved.
Wood has owned shares in Auckland Airport since he was a teenager, but failed to fully disclose that stake — worth about $13,000 — in his pecuniary interest statements.
The Minister told media on Tuesday that he attempted to sell the shares last year but the process had stalled due to an administrative error.
His broker needed information about his ownership from Auckland Airport’s share register, which is managed by Link Market Services, but it was sent to an old email address.
Wood never followed up the process and the shares were never sold as a result.
The minister said he had made two mistakes, firstly not publicly declaring the shares prior to January last year—which he said was a genuine error—and secondly, not completing the sale.
He said he was “enormously disappointed” to be stood down from his role as Transport Minister and that he would be fixing those two mistakes as quickly as possible.
“It is a portfolio I love and that I put huge energy into, but I accept with good grace the Prime Minister's decision around this. I have to take my medicine and put these two things right, and I’ll do that and then I’ll look forward to getting back to the important work,” he told reporters.
Wood has been the minister responsible for overseeing the light rail line to Auckland Airport and, previously, aviation regulation. Both things present a possible conflict of interest.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Wood had been “stood down” effective immediately while “any issues around his conflicts are appropriately resolved”.
“Michael has indicated to me his intention to sell the shares in Auckland International Airport as soon as possible. I believe that is the appropriate course of action”.
Kieran McAnulty will step up to be acting-Minister of Transport until the situation is resolved.
No malice, no mercy
National Party leader Christopher Luxon said Hipkins had a problem managing his team and was “not a good leader”.
The opposition leader said he would have immediately stood the minister down from all of his portfolios.
“I would hope that he is also stood down from Auckland Issues because Auckland [City Council] is this week considering the sale of its Airport shares”.
Act Party leader David Seymour mounted an unlikely defence of the Labour Minister, saying there was no evidence of malice and little opportunity for him to benefit from the small stake.
“The only way he stood to benefit was if he completed the light rail to the airport, the share price might have gone up but, as you’ll notice, he hasn’t done that anyway”.
“What I look for is evidence that a person is deliberately trying to hide or mislead, I don’t think that he’s done that,” he said.
44 Comments
Really? It's $13k. I mean I think it's great that this has happened but such a low bar goodness.... Meanwhile in the US...https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/dozens-in-congress-beat-stock-market-in-2…
His Missus has some as well. So not sure what the family total is.
The optics are not good especially when this govt is pushing the slow train to the airport against most public opinion.
Update: in the media this morning there is no indication that his Missus has any more shares, herself. But she is involved with Council so should not take part in any vote about airport share sales....
Dianne Feinstein. Oldest senator representing California. Reportedly suffering from memory loss. Estimated net worth around USD200 mio. Salary approx USD200K.
- Attended Covid hearings by the CDC in early 2020. Afterwards, her husband sold between USD1.5 & USD6 million in stock Allogene Therapeutics. The stock market collapsed shortly afterwards. Feinstein was cleared by the DOJ.
- In April 2018, Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate's Judiciary Committee, which Feinstein sat on. In Jan 2018, Feinstein’s husband bought USD250,000 Facebook stock. Only in May 2018 did Feinstein disclose the purchase and Feinstein praised META in the hearing.
- Dec 2009, Feinstein & her husband bought USD1 mio in Amyris Biotechnologies. It was their only transaction the entire year. Weeks after, the company was awarded a USD24 mio governmental grant. Later, Feinstein introduced her own bill that benefited Amyris Biotech.
- July 2011, the Postal Service entered into an exclusive contract with the real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Group. Feinstein’s husband was the chairman of the company’s board of directors. Furthermore, he served on the global development counsel on Obama's counsel.
$13k. Hardly an issue. Many MPs will undoubtedly have index funds that have conflicts of interest greater than this in the scheme of things.
Certainly should have been disclosed.
But can't help thinking the fuss and standing him down is a waste of everyone's time and money who had engagements with him until he is given back the portfolio. The intermediaries, the less well informed, all to trickle back to him and waste more time in the future. Undoubtedly >$13k worth.
I mean... Looks good for NZs lack of corruption I guess? (Except the whole property investments as many others have espoused).
You know Luxon owns 7 houses because he told us. Did you know about Michael Woods airport shares? The point is that the information is disclosed. You can’t expect politicians to own nothing and even if they don’t own anything you could say that not owning a house would make them keen on lowering house house prices. Disclosure is the key here.
No fan of this government, but a modest shareholding from an investment as a teenager, seems inconsequential except that reminders and undertakings were not honoured for no reason. But wasn’t there once a similar enquiry and outcry over non disclosure of a “forgotten” shareholding of PM Key whilst in office?
Just a PR stunt. "There's no such thing as bad publicity"- it's unlikely anyone is thinking $13k in old undeclared shares is a big deal. More likely to get him sympathy than anything else.
OTOH.. what other juicy titbit of political news did we miss today because of this distraction?
On the one hand the shares weren't worth a huge amount and the opposition are trying to milk it for all it's worth.
On the other hand, the rules are there for a reason and it shouldn't be difficult to follow them. Perhaps Wood doesn't think the rules are important, or maybe he thinks they somehow don't apply to him, or it could be he's just not very good at managing his own affairs. Either way, not a great look.
I think everyone is missing the point here to a degree. We should be asking why he declined North Shore Airfield's application to become an airport authority. What was the rationale behind his decision that would have placed the NSA in a position to develop services to the northern side of AKL, something I think most people would agree is needed. Or is there an expectation that Whenuapai will do that when the air force finally packs it's bags and finishes it's move to Ohakea?
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