Chris Hipkins says Michael Wood must regain trust of his Labour colleagues

Thursday, 27 November 2025

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says former minister Michael Wood needs to regain the trust of his colleagues and constituents before finding a role in any new Government.

Wood has been selected as the Labour candidate for Mt Roskill, an Auckland seat generally considered safe for Labour but held by National MP Carlos Cheung with a slim majority of 1564.

Wood was suspended as a minister in the last Government after it emerged that while while transport minister he had failed to properly declare shares he had held in Auckland Airport since the late 1990s.

Woods resigned following the discovery of other shares not properly declared.

Parliament’s Privileges Committee and the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests Sir Maarten Wevers were both critical of his conduct in their reports on the matter, but stopped short of alleging deliberate dishonesty or contempt of Parliament.

Hipkins was speaking to The Post in the days after Wood was selected to once again represent Labour in Mount Roskill - the seat he lost to National in 2023 following the scandal.

The Labour leader was careful to say he was not assigning anyone roles in a future Cabinet, but when asked directly if Wood had a way back, Hipkins said trust needed to be rebuilt.

“Michael needs to regain the trust of his electorate, and then he needs to regain the trust of his colleagues, and those are the areas which he has to focus on. I've been very clear with it, with him on that,” Hipkins said.

“Does he have things to contribute in the future? Yes, I think he does if he can do those two things.”

Hipkins noted that Wood had contributed a lot to Labour in the past and had apologised for the mistake he made.

Wood came into Parliament in 2017 after a long period of activity within the Labour Party.

He served in various ministerial roles in the second term of the Sixth Labour Government and shepherded through the sizeable Fair Pay Agreements legislation - which was swiftly repealed following the election.

Wood told The Post that standing for the seat again was in part about facing his past mistakes.

“I’ve been pretty open about acknowledging the mistakes I made, that the fallout from that was devastating for me professionally, and also took a massive personal toll that took a lot of work to build back from,” Wood said.

“A big part of re-standing is squaring up to that and being clear about lessons learned, which I have done. Equally, while I’ll own that, I’m also not going to let that entirely define me. I’m proud of the achievements I made as a minister and MP, during which time I led extensive reforms to deliver on Labour's values and agenda; and I always went into bat for Mt Roskill.”

He said people in the electorate had been supportive since his selection.

Mt Roskill has been won by a Labour MP in every election it has existed in other than 2023.

Under changes to electorate boundaries, Mount Roskill has picked up parts of New Lynn and Blockhouse Bay, while losing other areas to the neighbouring Mt Albert electorate.

Wood has previously told The Post that “on the face of it” this will “give something of an advantage to the National Party, but probably not a large additional advantage”.