Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): It is obviously with a heavy heart that I stand to speak in this debate. The resignation of our colleague Michael Wood is obviously the right thing for him to. The Prime Minister's acceptance of it indicated his frustration and anger at the situation. New Zealanders do deserve better than what the saw from Michael Wood and therefore it was appropriate that he resigned. I do want to say though as I begin my contribution that I sat on the other side of the House one day when a member of the ACT Party walked in here and told New Zealanders that he'd stolen a dead baby's identity. I sat on that side of the House when we learnt that Rodney Hide the great perk-buster had been taking perks to travel overseas. So it does happen in this House from time to time that people do things that they regret people do things that are wrong but I do think it's important that we all remember our history in that regard.When the Prime Minister spoke yesterday about receiving Michael Wood's resignation he indicated that he had been alerted to additional shareholdings that Mr Wood held in the JM Fairey Family Trust of which he is both a trustee and a beneficiary. The Prime Minister indicated that these new shareholdings raised significant concerns around whether Michael Wood had identified and managed his potential and real conflicts of interest properly.Obviously we had had the earlier incident involving the Auckland Airport shares but this set of new shareholdings draw into question a number of other decisions in roles that Mr Wood had. Obviously members will be aware of the earlier discussions of the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's office had had with Mr Wood around the management of his shareholdings and because he had failed repeatedly to identify disclose and appropriately manage those conflicts of interest this is the reason why Mr Wood took it upon himself to resign and the Prime Minister accepted that resignation.I say it is with heavy heart for two reasons. The first of those is that Michael Wood has been a good and valued colleague. He has been a competent Minister a hard-working Minister who has achieved a lot in the portfolios that he works in. As has been stated by members from across the House he is a person who they have seen as diligent who they have seen as hard-working and from time to time—I know members across the House won't always say it inside the House but they have worked with him particularly in his role as immigration Minister to achieve good outcomes for their constituents as well as for the country as a whole.Michael himself released a statement yesterday where he made clear that he understood that his actions meant that he needed to resign and he apologised to the Prime Minister and to the New Zealand public for the fact that he had not managed his conflict of interest effectively and he took responsibility for that in doing so.So I have a heavy in the sense that he is a colleague that I have valued and someone who I do think genuinely believes in public service and in serving New Zealanders.The second reason I have a heavy heart is because it is important that as Ministers we uphold the Cabinet Manual and the oaths that we take and the undertakings and commitments that we make upon becoming Ministers. We need to engender confidence across the New Zealand public that Ministers—and indeed members of Parliament more broadly—are behaving in line with the undertakings that we make. And so whenever a situation like this occurs it causes distress to all of us I think in the House to see this kind of thing happen.The Prime Minister has responded in terms of how to make some systemic changes in the wake of Mr Wood's resignation to ensure that we are able to have a tighter disclosure regime for Ministers.The first of those changes is that Cabinet Office would move to quarterly reporting of conflicts of interest to the Prime Minister. Currently we do that as part of an annual review or on an ad hoc basis as particular issues arise. Moving to quarterly reporting will create a consistent time frame and a consistent process for which conflicts of interest can be identified and then disclosed and then managed.Secondly there will be a new escalation process if a Minister is not fully engaging with the process or following the advice of the Cabinet Office on the management of a conflict of interest. The Cabinet Office will now be able to escalate the matter rapidly and directly to the Prime Minister to avoid a situation where a Minister would repeatedly ignore their guidance.Thirdly there will now be in-person annual reviews with each Minister to discuss their conflicts. At the moment the annual review of Ministers' interests is conducted by way of letter at the end of the financial year. An in-person meeting will ensure that any issues that arise can be more directly addressed and resolved.Fourthly each Minister will have to nominate a dedicated person in their office to support them with their conflict of interest processes. This means essentially there will be another set of eyes in an office around making sure that all conflicts are managed appropriately.And fifthly conflict disclosures will now become—and in fact already have become—a standing item at the start of each Cabinet or Cabinet committee meeting. The Institute of Directors recommends this approach as it means it's a standing item and therefore nobody can argue that they weren't aware that they needed to declare those interests at the beginning of a meeting.So that set of initiatives that the Prime Minister is undertaking and putting in place with the Cabinet Office will tighten up the process significantly. But nobody is making any excuses. The rules are clear: the failure of Mr Wood to keep to the rules is the reason why he is no longer a Minister today.It is worth noting—and the Prime Minister noted this in his comments about Mr Wood's resignation yesterday—that in Australia there is a code of conduct for Ministers that requires that they divest themselves of investments and other interests in any public or private company or business. That is that other than public superannuation funds or publicly listed managed funds or trust arrangements where the Minister has no visibility or control of decision making—a blind trust" as it is commonly known. Ministers in Australia are unable to hold shares in any other way other than that. I know that the Prime Minister has said he wants to consider whether that approach would be appropriate. I've had some conversations in recent weeks with Australian Ministers who indicate that that very clear line has made it much easier for them. Many of them have had shareholdings in the past but on becoming a Minister they know exactly what the rules are they make the shift to the managed trust or the blind trust or keep things within their superannuation and there is simply no way one way or the other. That is obviously something the Prime Minister is seriously considering and I think all members in the House might want to think about whether that is a good idea to make sure that there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever.I want to reiterate the fact that I don't believe that Michael Wood has acted at any point during this process with the intent of personal gain. That is simply not in the character of the name. What has happened here is there has been an extremely large oversight and poor exercise of judgment in the management of conflicts of interest. As a result of that Mr Wood has resigned. He will be searching his soul and he will have a heavy heart too. I want him to know on behalf of his colleagues that we love him and that we continue to do support him acknowledging that he has done the right thing by resigning in this instance. I also want to acknowledge the leadership of the Prime Minister here Chris Hipkins. In the four or five months since he has been the Prime Minister there have been many issues that New Zealand has had to deal with including the severe weather events including dealing with the ongoing impacts of the global economic crisis that we're seeing making sure that New Zealand rebuilds its way out from that. The Prime Minister has been doing an excellent job of leading the country. He has been internationally out there ensuring that trade agreements have been finalised making sure that New Zealand is well-represented and this weekend he will go to China for a very high-level and high-profile visit. The Prime Minister is doing an excellent job of leading a Cabinet that is completely committed to the work that we have to do to build an ever-stronger more prosperous country where we include people. We have made great strides on that in the last few years and indeed in the time that Mr Hipkins has been in charge of the Government. The Government remains fully focused on that work and we look forward to continuing it."