Transport Minister Michael Wood stood down after airport shares ...

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has stood Michael Wood down as transport minister while any remaining issues around his conflicts are resolved.

On Tuesday morning, it was reported that Wood did not declare his shares immediately when he became an MP or when he took up the transport portfolio.

Wood purchased the shares, worth about $13,000, when he was a teenager in the 1990s.

He declared the shares to the Cabinet Office when he became a minister in 2020.

However, he failed to declare them in the public register of MPs' assets and other interests until 2022.

Wood said he did not disclose them as he thought they had been sold.

Hipkins met with Wood this morning to discuss the shares.

"This morning I spoke with Michael Wood and advised him that he will be stood down as transport minister while any remaining issues around his conflicts are appropriately resolved," Hipkins said in a statement.

"Michael has indicated to me his intention to sell the shares in Auckland International Airport as soon as possible. I believe that is the appropriate course of action. He has also indicated he will work through with the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests how best to resolve the issues around his past declarations."

Wood said although he was disappointed to lose the role, he accepted the decision "with good grace" and had already met with the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests to correct the register.

"I have to take my medicine around this, and I have to put these two things right. I'll do that."

Wood said he started the process of selling the shares last year, but the "reality of the fairly busy life I have" meant he did not get back to it.

"That's not an excuse. That's the honest answer, the honest reason. I should have focused on that and got that job done and that's what I'll be doing now."

Hipkins said Wood had found himself in an "unacceptable" situation, but standing him down while he resolved the matters was the appropriate punishment.

"One of the challenges is that the Cabinet Office had been advised by him on a number of occasions that he was divesting himself of the shares. That clearly hasn't happened. That is quite a material issue, and so it's important that he does that."

Hipkins said Wood did not offer an excuse.

"The only explanation he's given me is that it's, if you like, a matter of life admin. It's not something that he has sufficiently prioritised. He should have, it is important that he does that now."

Wood did not offer his resignation, neither did the prime minister ask for it.

"I don't think the transgression is one that is so significant that he should lose his job altogether, but clearly he does need to take the time to get it right," Hipkins said.

Wood said he hoped to return to the role once the shares were sold and the register was corrected.

ACT leader David Seymour said it was appropriate Wood was stood down, but did not believe he had misled Parliament.

"I don't think that he's done that. That's quite different from other cases where people have gone out to deliberately dupe the public. I think in this case, he's made a mistake and fessed up. That doesn't change the fact people had the right to know, he's paid a penalty for that and I think that's about right."

National leader Christopher Luxon said Hipkins should have been stood Wood down on Friday, when the issue was first raised with the Prime Minister's office.

"Chris Hipkins had four days to show some leadership. Yet again, he's just reacting rather than proactively leading."

Kieran McAnulty has been announced as acting transport minister.

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