Michael Wood, a minister of the New Zealand government, resigned because of several conflicts of interest. This was recently confirmed by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
According to Chris Hipkins, Wood held additional shareholdings in the JM Fairey Family Trust. Michael Wood is a trustee and beneficiary of the Trust. This came to light after Michael Wood’s resignation as the transport minister due to the controversy involving his Auckland airport shares.
Hipkins further added that the newly discovered shareholdings birthed various concerns about Wood who failed to identify and manage prospective and real conflicts of interest. Moreover, The Trust has shares in multiple telecommunications firms, like Chorus and Spark and the National Australia Bank.
Micahel Wood went on to add telecommunications technicians to the immigration Green List. Consequently, this made others from the telecommunications sector eager to pursue those changes to the Green List.
Wood owns a shareholding in the National Australia Bank, which is the Bank of New Zealand’s parent company. The Prime Minister confirmed that this was not disclosed during any of the discussions of the cabinet, including executing a market study into banking.
Similarly, Wood failed to declare his Auckland airport shares after being crowned a Member of Parliament (MP). Plus, he didn’t disclose this information after becoming the transport minister.
Wood bought the Auckland International Airport shares for 13,000 NZ dollars (7,900 USD) during his teenage in the 1990s.
Furthermore, he disclosed his ownership of the shares to the Cabinet Office after becoming a minister in 2020. Regardless, He forgot to mention them in the public register of MP’s assets and other interests until 2022, believing that the shares were sold.
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