17 Comments

Oh for goodness sake "His office has confirmed that he did in fact declare it in 2018 but Parliamentary Service likely missed it because of the way it was formatted."

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/06/green-font-and-formatting-to-blame-for-wood-s-declaration-blunder.html

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UPDATE: The shares have now been sold and the money given to the Anglican Trust for Women and Children.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/08/michael-wood-sells-auckland-airport-shares/

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Yep : I think we are all agreed Michael Wood got a bit sloppy on this. But for me, it will never undermine his good work on seeing Fair Pay Agreements, minimum wage rises etc through ; that is his legacy and have no doubt about it ; Grace and Favour MP Goldsmith is trying to take that down.

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Absolutely we should keep it in perspective. In fact this isn't even the biggest Auckland Airport shares story of this week! I do feel for Chippy though, he must be tearing his hair out.

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Yep- Labour does not need this nonsense. Michael Wood did say he had put the shares with his broker a while back-they didn't sell, and he didn't follow up. That story seems to be lost now. Such hypocriscy from National but that's how they roll. Tracy Watkins, former PR person for John Key, and all around cheer leader, took exemption to Meghan Woods' analogy to the Handmaids Tale with National's "targeted" subsidies of contraception. She thought it was terribly unfair, and wrongthat this analogy had been made. She decided that this attempt at humour was setting a low bar for the election campaign. No mention of National's AI generated , misinforming images of course, of Chris Bishops half baked memes,or Luxon's repetitive "Coalition of Chaos" rants. JanTinetti has apparently also messed up??I was in hospital when that happened- didn't watch tv, or my computer for a week. I am now recuperating in North Canterbury at my sister's farmette- lots of horses, and horsy talk. I say recuperating-unfortunatelyI lost my balance on a top step and hit the deck.It hurt a lot-I'm now sporting a black eye. My sister is enjoying sending snaps to family members. It seems to be getting more ugly by day. We are supposed to be going out for dinner Saturday Night to watch the rugby, and celebrate a birthday!! Perhaps I will get an eye patch.

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Oh dear, not a good run. Still it is an excellent reason to talk like a pirate if you do wear the patch. Hope you’re feeling better :)

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Agreed Darien and Michael has done more than just these Parliamentary achievemnets. As the local MP and Minister for Auckland he threw himself into providing support shelter and sustenance for thos affected by the weather events in Auckland. Shame Newshub couldn't give a more balanced account of what his priorities are.

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This seems to be another media and opposition party beat up. The consequences concern me as these constant gotcha moments take a toll on those on the receiving end confidence and mental health. Minister Wood and Minister Tinetti are being hounded over matters that when looked at objectively are minor. I hope they stay strong and carry on their exemplary good service to our country and to the Labour Government. This will pass

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I wish we could hear more from the Minister himself. "I screwed up" might go a long way to deflate this. Having had even a little insight into the lives of ministers I can see how it happens. There's a lot of stuff that gets pushed to the bottom of the list.

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What a shame such a hard working and accomplished Minister made such a small, silly error and has had to endure the resulting media feeding frenzy. As for the NACT responses words fail me when I look at the errors committed by Seymour, Uffindel, Kuriger and note the lack of the same response where they are concerned. Wonder if the formatting error will be newsworthy this evening.

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Key had a blind trust. I think it unlikely that a man who dealt with equities on a daily basis and who made a fortune from scratch had no idea what was in his secret trust portfolio.

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Surely their must be something jucy lurking in the NACT cupboard ??

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I imagine Crusher has a few scandals filed away for future use.

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I've nooo energy for this storm-in-a-teacup, but I'm pleased you do. The hypocrisy of nats/act must be revealed.

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Aren't family trusts a little bit tricky beasts to manage? It's not like there is necessarily a direct and immediate response to requests? Don't other folk need to give permission? If people are slow to respond things can easily slip off the radar and disappear from the to do list. It's messy, but hardly corrupt. I'm more concerned about the leverage exerted by big $ donors to politicsl parties (& mayoral elects).

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Good points made here as usual.

Also, what a chilling photo of Key, it’s like seeing his soul (if he had one.)

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I think the issue is a little bigger than the money involved - this is an unfortunate example of being in Cabinet for too long - the rules somehow don't need to apply to me any longer - same for the Minister of Education - this sort of contempt that creeps in after a few years around the cabinet table has ruined many governments before - the PM needs to get a grip on this sort of stuff quickly - its not just a bad look for look for Labour it is corrosive - and the other part that worries me here is that Minister Wood's wife is an Auckland Councillor - was there no-one else who could be Minister for Auckland? Is the pool really that small or has Labour got itself caught up in a very small echo chamber?

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