MPs rush to declare pecuniary interests after Michael Wood shares scandal

Former Transport Minister Michael Wood in his new seat during Question Time. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Members of Parliament have rushed to declare properties and shares they own, filing 24 pages of amendments to the Pecuniary Interests Register, some dating back to 2017.

The list of amended returns is four times longer than last year’s, and appears to have been prompted by former Transport Minister Michael Wood’s resignation after he did not declare his significant shareholdings. Wood’s amended returns are the longest of any MP.

Each year, MPs are required to declare their ownership of property, shares, gifts they receive, and other interests in the annual Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests.

A handful of MPs will make mistakes on their declarations and file an amended return, but previous years have only seen five or six pages of amended returns published.

This year, 24 pages of amended returns were returned, stretching back multiple years, apparently prompted by Wood’s omissions.

Wood declared shares owned in as many as 15 companies, held in the JM Fairey Family Trust. The companies changed year to year, some moving on to Wood’s declaration, while others moved off.

In 2016/17, the trust owned shares in Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited. They were sold by 2018/19.

In 2018/19, the trust declared shares in Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a European owner of shopping malls. This shareholding was absent from the 2016/17 return and the 2017/18 return.

National’s Simon O’Connor also filed multiple amendments to the register stretching back to 2018/19.

O’Connor amended his returns to say he owned shares in Air New Zealand and Port of Tauranga.

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall declared she had invested in the Mercer Ethical Leaders NZ Shares Fund.

Kiri Allan, who has announced she will retire at the election, declared gifts of tickets to Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson declared help towards his flights to New York last year from Air New Zealand, and hospitality by Air New Zealand on that trip.

National’s Mark Mitchell declared a holiday home he left off his initial return. That brings his total property holding to seven, meaning he owns as many properties as his leader Christopher Luxon, who owns the most property of any MP. He declared the home in a prior return but left it off his most recent one.

An investigation into Wood’s incorrect returns by the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests Sir Maarten Wevers was returned to Parliament last week. Wood has been referred to the Privileges Committee which will investigate whether Wood broke privilege in filing multiple incorrect returns.

Wevers found the incorrect returns damaged Wood’s “standing as a member and has also cast a shadow over the entire register, and the trust and confidence that the public are entitled to expect they can have in their elected representatives”.

“Wood also demonstrated a worrying and ongoing lack of awareness of the need to correct errors and omissions in his pecuniary interest returns and that the corrections should be notified in a timely manner,” he said.

Wood apologised for the errors.

“Like a lot of people, I do sometimes make mistakes. I have in this case. I’ve apologised for those and I’ve spent the last few weeks putting things right,” he said.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor of the New Zealand Herald, which he joined in 2021. He previously worked for Stuff and Newsroom in their Press Gallery offices in Wellington. He started in the Press Gallery in 2018.