His time in the Beehive came crashing down after he was forced to resign as Minister for Transport following revelations that he failed to disclose his Auckland Airport shares.
He would then resign from his remaining ministerial portfolios after the discovery of additional shares in Chorus, Spark and the National Australia Bank held by a family trust.
It was also revealed that he or his office had been contacted no less than 12 times by the Cabinet Office over the matter, and still nothing was done.
At the time, then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called Wood’s failure to manage the conflicts of interest “beyond frustrating”.
“I’m happy to be clear again that that wasn’t good enough. That was a space that I failed in.
“That experience in 2023 and 2024 really was bruising. It put me totally on the floor. Obviously, I paid a huge price politically at that time, but I paid a huge price personally as well.
“That period of 2023 and 2024 took me to, I’ve got to say, some pretty dark places where frankly it was difficult to go on at times.
“Because one of the things about us as people, and I think particularly sometimes one of the things about us as men in New Zealand, is your standing, your status, how people view you, you do feel it.
“So, I can acknowledge that I made real errors at that period of time. I can take that on the chin,” he said.
After representing Mt Roskill in Parliament since 2016, Wood lost the seat to National’s Carlos Cheung. It was the first time the seat had escaped Labour’s grasp since its inception in 1999.
“One of the things I’ll be saying to people in Mt Roskill at this election is that I made those errors, but over a long period of time, I’m someone who’s focused on our community.
“I’ve got things done for Mt Roskill and I’m ready to fight on all of the things that our community needs,” Wood said.
Wood is currently a director at E tū, New Zealand’s largest private sector union.
He’ll continue working in that role before taking leave ahead of the election “to focus fully on the campaign and trying to win Mt Roskill”.
Listen to the full episode to hear more.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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