Cam Slater: Up Sh*t Creek without a Paddle

The minister who described the protest at Parliament in Wellington as “a river of filth” was yesterday found up Shit Creek without a paddle. The Prime Minister has had to effectively sack Michael Wood for being a dishonest, lying little weasel. Chris Hipkins let him resign rather than be formally sacked but, make no mistake, it was a sacking.

Michael Wood has quit as a Cabinet minister after it emerged he had more shareholding interests in areas that clashed with his portfolios.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed Wood’s resignation today, saying he became aware of the fresh issues yesterday.

It has emerged Wood held further shares in Chorus, Spark and the National Australia Bank, further to his Auckland Airport shares, that have since been disclosed to Hipkins.

Wood’s failure to manage the conflicts of interest was “beyond frustrating”.

The bank shares weren’t disclosed when the Cabinet discussed a possible market study into the banking industry. That was despite repeated requests from Hipkins and others for Wood to disclose his shares.

“New Zealanders expect and deserve very high standards from their ministers,” Hipkins said.

Hipkins said he was frustrated and angry at the revelations.

“These have been unnecessary distractions.”

NZ Herald

He had to go. He lied to the Prime Minister, he lied to the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests, he clearly has no concept of conflicts of interest and he’s destroyed his career over a few tiny holdings of shares.

He should now resign from Parliament. He’s been shown to being a lying, deceptive little socialist weasel.

Michael Wood spent years being Phil Goff’s under-study and heir apparent, but he poured petrol all over his parliamentary career and then carelessly tossed a match into the puddle.

The most amazing part of the whole press conference was watching Chris Hipkins rendered speechless at Michael Wood’s actions and excuses.

But Hipkins is also clearly shell-shocked by this latest shabby episode. He looked and sounded deflated. He is flagging because he knows that these sorts of mistakes can’t actually be fixed inside this Labour Government, because its stupidity, ineptitude and idiocy is actually endemic.

He is having to clean up the mess left by Jacinda Ardern and her poor grasp of governance. Ultimately these failures should be sheeted home to her.

How to Cope with Incompetent Ministers could be the title of the new changes Hipkins has announced for looking at pecuniary interests and dealing with conflicts of interest. Perhaps it would have been best if the incompetent ministers weren’t given any power in the first place.

Hipkins is taking advice from the Institute of Directors and also looking at Australia where ministers are required to divest themselves of shareholdings.

You could do all this – but why do ministers need to have this spelled out for them? Apparently “New Zealanders expect and deserve very high standards from their ministers”. Are those expectations higher than their leader’s expectations? It would appear so.

There is clearly a competency issue at play. This is a moral failing of Labour because they’ve sacked Wood for stupidity rather than incompetence.

Time to put this clown show out to pasture.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE