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.
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