Transport Minister Michael Wood fronts the media over his Auckland Airport shares. Video / Mark Mitchell
Transport Minister Michael Wood isn’t the only family member with an interest in Auckland Airport - his wife Julie Fairey is involved in the proposed sale of Auckland Council’s airport shares.
Fairey is a first-term councillor on Auckland Council and former chair of the Puketāpapa Local Board, who has stoodfor office under the City Vision ticket.
City Vision is a left-wing ticket of Labour, Green and community independents, which believes in public control and ownership of strategic assets and campaigned against Mayor Wayne Brown’s plans to off-load the shares during the public consultation on this year’s budget.
Michael Wood's wife Julie Fairey. Photo / Supplied
The Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa ward councillor has not publicly opposed the 18 per cent shareholding, worth $2.2 billion, but is expected to vote against it when councillors make decisions on the budget on Thursday.
Wood did not immediately declare shares he owned in Auckland Airport when he became an MP or when he later took up the transport portfolio, despite his responsibility for the light rail line the Government promised to build to the airport and his then role as the minister overseeing aviation regulation.
Wood has owned the shares since he was a teenager but only began declaring them in the MPs’ register of pecuniary interests, the public list of MPs’ financial interests, in January 2022.
A spokesperson for Wood said the minister mistakenly thought that they were held in a trust, which has been declared since his election to Parliament and his appointment as an Under Secretary.
Wood has declared himself as both a trustee and a beneficiary of the JM Fairey Trust.
When contacted about the shares by the Herald, the spokesperson said he was now in the process of getting rid of them. He owns 1530 shares, worth about $13,000 at the current price.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins plans to speak with Michael Wood over his airport shareholding. Photo / File
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB he would be having a discussion with Wood today before making a further judgment.
Hipkins did not say whether he would sack Wood.
Hipkins said he would speak with Wood about the Auckland Airport shares today and give an update about Wood at his post-Cabinet press conference.
