Michael Wood asked 12 times by Cabinet Office if he had sold Auckland Airport shares

• Michael Wood has been stood down as Transport Minister over shares in Auckland Airport.
• Wood did not properly declare the shares and did not complete the sale of shares last year.
• The Cabinet Office asked him 12 times since November 2020 if he had divested the shares.
• Wood’s wife Auckland councillor Julie Fairey is also a beneficiary of a trust that owns airport shares in a managed fund.

Michael Wood was approached 12 times by the Cabinet Office over his Auckland Airport shares, seeking to confirm he had divested or was in the process of divesting his shares.

Wood told media the Cabinet office provided advice to him, which he “should have responded to with more urgency.”

He has not sold the shares yet, but contacted his new broker on Wednesday morning to get the process underway.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was questioned about the suspended transport minister’s shares in the House on Wednesday by deputy National leader Nicola Willis.

READ MORE:
* Michael Wood, the shares, and the taint of incompetence
* Michael Wood asked ‘about half a dozen times’ about his Auckland Airport shares, Hipkins says
* Auckland Council looking into potential conflicts of interest over airport shares

Hipkins listed the 12 dates, ranging from November 19, 2020 to March 27, 2023, when 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 said.

Willis asked if it was honest of Wood to, on 12 occasions, commit to divesting the airport shares but fail to do so.

“I think he should have divested the shares when he first said he was going to,” Hipkins said.

Wood said he regretted that he did not pursue that advice from the Cabinet Office as quickly as he should have.

When asked on Tuesday how many times the Cabinet Office had checked whether Wood had divested the shares, Hipkins said “probably somewhere around half a dozen”.

That doubled on Wednesday, with Hipkins listing all the occasions since 2020 that the Cabinet Office had sought to confirm the shares were divested.

The Opposition is questioning the Government around Wood’s Auckland Airport shares during Question Time, which is being livestreamed above.

Wood is standing by his decision to decline a North Shore Airport application last year while holding shares in Auckland Airport, saying he carefully considered “overwhelmingly negative feedback”, and advice.

ACT Leader David Seymour says the public can no longer give Wood the “benefit of the doubt” over not realising he still owned shares in Auckland Airport, and that Wood needed to resign.

Seymour said Wood, who was stood down as transport minister on Tuesday, could not “carry on as a minister after declining airport authority status to North Shore Aerodrome, despite owning shares in a competing airport”.

“The question of Wood being a minister is no longer a matter of ‘life admin’ as Chris Hipkins has put it,” Seymour said. “It is now a matter of whether people can trust the New Zealand Government to be open and transparent about who it serves.”

Wood said the decision around the North Shore airport was made “after carefully considering the overwhelmingly negative feedback from the community and advice from officials”.

“I have already acknowledged that this conflict was mismanaged, and a mistake that I take full responsibility for,” he said in a statement.

North Shore Aerodrome applied to become an airport authority in 2020 with plans for a “modest expansion”.

The plan to expand North Shore operations left some residents fearing for their land and future generations.

In its application, the club said airport authority status would ensure the airport keeps up with the “changing legislative and operation requirements necessary for the management of a modern airport”, while supporting the future business and industrial urbanisation of the surrounding area.

It hoped to extend its runway to improve safety and to allow for small regional turboprop aircraft to operate, with limited additional regional transport links.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the Transport Minister decided not to recommend to the Governor General to grant the North Shore Aero Club airport authority status in 2022.

A spokesperson for Wood told news agency Localmatters at the time there remained “unresolved questions about what future requirements could be, were the airport to grow; and sufficient consultation between the airport and the community had not occurred”.

Dairy Flat School principal Katie Hills was among the community members who opposed the application at a public meeting attended by Wood in 2022.

Hills said the school could already hear the existing aircraft and an increase in flights or larger planes could make it difficult for teachers to be heard by students.

It also comes as Auckland Council looks into whether councillors – or their spouses – owning shares in Auckland International Airport was a conflict of interest ahead of a major council meeting this week.

Wood’s wife, Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa ward councillor Julie Fairey, is also the beneficiary of a trust that owns airport shares.

Fairey told Stuff she is a beneficiary of JM Fairey Family Trust which owns shares in Auckland International Airport as part of an investment in a managed fund, with just under 2% allocated to airport shares.

Fairey said trustees do not have control over the airport holding, only whether to hold the managed fund itself.

A member of the Puketāpapa Local Board for 12 years prior to being elected a councillor in October, Fairey declared she is a trustee of the JM Fairey Family Trust in previous Auckland Council elected member declarations of interest.

However, it does not appear in her 2022 register of interests. Fairey said that was because she did not realise she was a beneficiary of the trust.

“Today I updated my elected member declaration form to reflect my beneficiary title in the JM Fairey Family Trust, as I was not aware of this role until this morning. In previous years, I have proactively declared what I knew, which was my trustee role,” Fairey said.

The focus on airport share ownership comes as councillors are set to decide the fate of the council’s 18% shareholding in the airport company – worth about $2.2 billion.

Earlier on Tuesday, Wood said Hipkins’ decision to stand him down as transport minister was appropriate and that he accepted it “with good grace”.

“I made a mistake here. I accept that. That’s on me. And the appropriate thing to do now is to fix it.

“I made two mistakes. The first was not to declare that earlier on and that was a genuine error, and the second one was not completing the sale of the shares last year, I’ll be fixing both of those.”