Transport Minister Michael Wood is under fire after it was found he did not immediately declare $13,000 worth of shares in Auckland Airport - something National says is a "clear conflict of interest".
A spokesperson for Wood said he bought the shares as a teenager and mistakenly thought they were held in a trust and did not believe they needed to be declared separately. The trust had been declared since he entered Parliament, the spokesperson said, and was now in the process of divesting the shares.
National's acting Auckland spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said it appeared Wood had committed multiple breaches of the Cabinet Manual by not immediately disclosing the shares while transport minister.
“[It] presents a clear conflict of interest for a Minister of Transport responsible for Auckland’s transport network and as Minister for Auckland.
“For more than a year as Transport Minister, from late 2020 to early 2022, he did not declare his holding. That is a clear breach of the Cabinet Manual. His position may be untenable."
Goldsmith said Wood's explanation he believed the shares were in a family trust was "both incredible and irrelevant".
"Is he saying he did not disclose them because he thought he could keep the investment a secret from Parliament and Cabinet?"
He said in early 2022 Wood declared the shareholding in his pecuniary interests but "failed to manage the conflict effectively".
“The sensible thing would have been to sell the shares immediately on becoming Minister of Transport. Once he failed to do so he should have excused himself from decisions affecting the airport."
Goldsmith said the passing of the aviation part of the portfolio to another minister - Kiritapu Allan - did not resolve the conflicts.
“As Transport Minister, Mr Wood continues to be responsible for the Auckland light rail project, which is intended to link central Auckland to the airport. As Minister for Auckland, he frequently sits down to discuss Auckland transport issues with the mayor [Wayne Brown] and possibly its own investment in the airport.
"The fact that he is now reportedly selling the shares as his conflict becomes understood shows he knows he has failed to manage the conflict properly."
Goldsmith said Prime Minister Chris Hipkins needed to say how long he had known about the issue and whether he found Wood's explanation credible.
On Tuesday morning, Wood said he spoke briefly with Hipkins on Monday night but had not offered his resignation.
"I have made an error in terms of not declaring these shares earlier on, I did declare them last year and I did from the beginning of my time as a minister make Cabinet office fully aware of the shares that I held.
"This is not a new issue, I declared them in the [pecuniary interest] register last year.
"In the first year that I was a minister, the error that I made, which I apologise for, because I got this wrong, was that I had instructed the person who deals with these things for me to effectively get rid of those shares. I thought that had happened, I was wrong about that so I didn't declare them that year.
"When I prepared my register of interests for the following year, and I investigated these matters I determined that in fact I still held the shares, and that's when I declared them."
He said the register existed to provide transparency and clarity and he began a process to sell the shares last year which became "stalled".
"I take responsibility for that, I should have followed it through with more alacrity and I'll be doing that immediately."
Hipkins said he had not yet had a chance to speak with Wood about the issue properly but would later today, and provide an update at the post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon.
Asked if the issue was frustrating, he said: "It's certainly not helpful".
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