Besieged Minister Michael Wood was reminded 12 times by the Cabinet Office about selling his shares in Auckland Airport, it has been revealed.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins revealed the number under questioning from National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis in the House today.
It follows the revelation yesterday Wood failed to immediately declare $13,000 worth of shares in Auckland Airport, while in the role of Transport Minister — a role from which he was stood down from yesterday until he sells the shares.
The PM on Wednesday was feeling the heat on the issue, Benedict Collins reports. (Source: 1News)
National says it's a conflict of interest and a breach of the Cabinet Manual. Wood has said he bought the shares as a teenager, thought they were in a trust and was going to sell them last year but the process "stalled". He advised the Cabinet Office of the shares and it advised him to sell them.
In the parliamentary debating chamber today, Hipkins said he'd asked the Cabinet Office to provide a detailed timeline of its interactions with Wood regarding the issue.
"On the 19th of November 2020, the 9th and 14th of December 2020, 24th March 2021, 30 June 2021, 17 December 2021, 1st of March 2022, 28th of March 2022, 4th of May 2022, 16th of January 2023, 6th of March 2023 and 27th of March 2023, the Cabinet Office sought to confirm whether he had divested the shareholding. Throughout the process, Michael Wood confirmed he was about to or was in the process of divesting the shareholdings."
Hipkins clarified that was 12 "interactions".
Willis asked if Hipkins thought it was honest of Wood to commit 12 times to selling the shares while failing to do so 12 times.
Hipkins said he believed Wood should have divested the shares when he said he was going to. He said Wood had not met expectations and that was why he had been stood down as Transport Minister.
Wood remained in Cabinet with his remaining portfolios in Immigration, Auckland, Workplace Relations and Safety and as an Associate Minister of Finance.
Willis asked why Wood was still a minister if he had "misled" the Cabinet Office and why the Cabinet Office, being aware Wood had not yet sold the shares, did not note and register it as a ministerial conflict of interest.
Hipkins said it was a Cabinet Office decision.
"In terms of why they didn't signal that, I'm somewhat frustrated that when I was doing the [Cabinet] reshuffle, which the Cabinet Office were consulted on, they had not highlighted that as an issue for me."
Willis asked Hipkins if he had "considered simply locking his ministers in a room for an hour, telling them to read [the Cabinet Manual] and then to apply it?"
Later, outside the debating chamber, Wood said he should have responded to the communications with "more urgency".
"I started a process of divesting these shares, I didn't complete it. That's an error that I made, that's what I'm fixing now.
"I don't feel good about this. It's been a difficult exercise for me, but I take responsibility for it."
He said he had not yet sold the shares as of this afternoon but had contacted his broker this morning to begin the process "urgently".
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