Labour's Michael Wood says the Auckland Airport shares drama that cost him his Transport Minister role - at least for now - is an issue "that I really really profoundly regret".
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stripped Wood of the role while he worked to resolve his conflict.
Wood has since sold his shares, worth more than $16,000, and donated the money to charity. It comes more than two-and-a-half years after the Cabinet Office first raised with him whether he was selling his shares. The office was under the impression Wood was in the process of doing so.
Wood also didn't initially delcare the shares on Parliament's pecuniary interests register. When he finally did last year, he didn't go back and correct previous records. The Registrar of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests, Sir Maarten Wevers, last week announced that he was launching an inquiry into whether Wood had complied with his obligations to declare his interests.
In an interview on AM, Wood was visibly emotional while detailing what went so wrong.
"For me being in politics is a real calling and politics is about making life better for people, and so this episode arising, and giving an impression that it might be about other stuff is something that really cuts to the core for me," he said.
"I feel terrible about it."
He admitted again "that I didn't get on to selling the shares as quickly as I should've".
"I told the Cabinet Office on day one that I had them, so there was no hiding that, the issue is that I didn't get on to selling them as quickly as I should've."
Wood compared the lack of urgency to selling the shares to a job that needs to be done around your home and "you know you've gotta do it" but other things get in the way.
"Every weekend you're thinking 'I should get onto that' and other stuff keeps coming up and you never quite get there," he said.
"It was there and it sort of just keep getting put off, and that's not an excuse, I take responsibility for that and I didn't get it right, but that's the reason effectively."
Wood told AM co-host Ryan Bridge the saga has been a "huge lesson" for him and taught him about the "importance of these things".
National's Erica Stanford told AM it's "really important that the Prime Minister has trust in his ministers".
Stanford attempted to deliver her position on the drama in a punchy line, but that took an awkward and hilarious turn.
"In the end, the ministers serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and actually of late the Prime Minster has not been placed in the pleasurable position, certainly by Michael."
Wood said he has "a good and close collegial relationship [with the Prime Minister] but we've never quite gone that far".
"Glad we've cleared that up, god this whole thing has been awkward hasn't it?" Stanford said.
Watch the video above for more.
