NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand / Politics

Michael Wood Auckland Airport shares: Opposition calls for sacking after revelations asked to sell shares 12 times

Thomas Coughlan
By Thomas Coughlan
Political Editor·NZ Herald·
7 Jun, 2023 05:36 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was grilled by reporters over the scandal surrounding MP Michael Wood's shares in Auckland Airport. Video / Mark Mitchell

National deputy leader Nicola Willis said suspended Transport Minister Michael Wood should be sacked from all his portfolios after it was revealed he was advised 12 times to sell his Auckland Airport shares.

“He should be fired,” Willis said after Question Time on Wednesday.

“He has effectively thumbed his nose at the Cabinet Office for two and a half years as they have begged him to get rid of his shares.

“By ignoring their advice, he has effectively ignored the Prime Minister; how can the Prime Minister possibly have confidence in him?” she said.

Willis, standing in for leader Christopher Luxon in the House, extracted the revelation from Prime Minister Christopher Hipkins.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

On Tuesday, Hipkins said Wood had only been told about “half a dozen” times that he should divest himself of the shares.

In the House on Wednesday, Hipkins was forced to read an excruciating list of the 12 dates on which the Cabinet Office asked Wood whether he had sold the shares.

On each occasion, Hipkins said Wood “confirmed that he was about to or was in the process of divesting the shareholdings”.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Willis later said she was “shocked” by Hipkins’ answer.

“It’s not often in the House when you ask a question where the answer is so much worse than you expect,” she said.

Willis asked Hipkins whether it was “honest” for Wood to say he was selling his shares, but fail to do so after each of those reminders.

Hipkins did not directly answer that question, responding only, “as I indicated yesterday, I think he should have divested the shares when he first said he was going to”.

On Tuesday, Hipkins outlined a way back for Wood, involving selling the shares, clearing up his prior disclosures to reflect the fact he has owned them for the entire time he was an MP, and ensuring no further damaging revelations emerge.

Hipkins said news on Wednesday that Wood had blocked the bid of North Shore Airport to have Airport Authority status did not clear this threshold, saying he reviewed the documentation around that and was happy with the way Wood had handled the matter.

“I’m satisfied that his shareholding didn’t play any role in the decision,” Hipkins said.

Wood told reporters after question time that he should have responded to the Cabinet Office requests with more urgency.

“I should have responded to it with more urgency. I didn’t,” he said.

“That’s an error that I made. That’s what I’m fixing now,” he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Opposition parties continued to turn up the temperature on Wednesday.

Act MPs piled into the Prime Minister, asking how New Zealanders could have confidence in the Government that does not take potential conflicts of interest seriously.

“How can a developer applying for a subdivision consent be confident the independent hearings commissioner does not have an investment in a competing subdivision when the Prime Minister couldn’t trust his own Transport Minister to declare shares of Auckland Airport when declining “airport authority” status to the North Shore Aerodrome?,” was one example from deputy leader Brooke van Velden.

The tactic grated on Labour MPs, Leader of the House Grant Robertson attempting to have it ruled out of order, saying the Act questions did not relate enough to the topic of the primary question.

The bigger issue for Wood is that neglecting to respond to those 12 requests from the Cabinet Office has turned him into a joke for opposition MPs.

Willis drew a comparison with her 13-year-old son.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Sometimes I have to ask him five or six times to pick his towel up off the floor but a dozen times, that is next level,” she said.

“This saga went on for two and a half years - it is unfathomable to me,” she said.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Politics

Premium
Politics

Revealed: The four people charged with reviewing every Treaty clause

10 Jul 05:31 AM
Premium
Politics

'Miscommunication': DoC backtracks over call that could have cost 700 jobs at Otago mine

10 Jul 05:01 AM
New Zealand|politics

David Seymour responds to migration statistics

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Politics

Premium
Revealed: The four people charged with reviewing every Treaty clause

Revealed: The four people charged with reviewing every Treaty clause

10 Jul 05:31 AM

Four-person panel, led by an ex-Waitangi Tribunal member, will review every Treaty clause.

Premium
'Miscommunication': DoC backtracks over call that could have cost 700 jobs at Otago mine

'Miscommunication': DoC backtracks over call that could have cost 700 jobs at Otago mine

10 Jul 05:01 AM
David Seymour responds to migration statistics

David Seymour responds to migration statistics

NZ First surges past Act in new political poll

NZ First surges past Act in new political poll

10 Jul 01:58 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP