Inside Parliament: Coulda, shoulda... Wood-a

Michael Wood is a transport minister in limbo. What in the Auckland Airport shareholdings happened? This week, 1News' politics team discuss the fallout from Wood's neglected to do list.

Read on and listen below.

Woods troubles began on Tuesday, when it was revealed he had not immediately declared shareholdings in Auckland Airport. The National Party highlighted it as a conflict of interest and a breach of Wood's obligations under the Cabinet Manual, which sets out rules for ministers.

Then it was revealed — by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins under intense questioning in the House from National's Nicola Willis — that Wood had been reminded by the Cabinet Office to offload the shares 12 times.

That was after Hipkins had stood Wood down as the transport minister — though Wood remained in Cabinet with other portfolios, such as Immigration.

Wood confirmed yesterday he had sold the shares for about $16,400, which he had donated to charity. Parliament is now conducting its own inquiry into the matter.

He's not the only minister in the dogbox either — Education Minister Jan Tinetti had to face the Privileges Committee this week.

Tinetti had to answer the committee on whether she deliberately misled Parliament by failing to correct a misleading statement — regarding her control over the release of school attendance data — fast enough.

Tinetti told the committee she regretted the "error of judgement" she made in not correcting a false statement to the House, but there was no intention to mislead Parliament.

And on Tuesday, an expert panel released a report with recommendations for electoral reform, including lowering the voting age, lowering the MMP threshold, and capping the value of donations.

Inside Parliament is the 1News politics podcast — you can find it on all good podcasting apps.