The Prime Minister has revealed Michael Wood was told 12 times by the Cabinet Office to sell his Auckland Airport shares and still failed to do so.
The Opposition is now calling on Chris Hipkins to fire Wood altogether.
Who knew a list of dates could be so damning. Hipkins in Parliament read out 12 dates on which Wood was asked by the Cabinet Office about divesting his shares.
National deputy leader Nicola Willis said it's gone from "bad to ludicrous".
"I have a 13-year-old son. Sometimes I have to ask him five or six times to pick his towel up off the floor, but a dozen times?" said Willis.
Wood was on Tuesday temporarily stood down as Transport Minister for failing to declare he held shares in Auckland Airport
On Wednesday morning, he finally got around to asking someone to offload them for him.
"I have this morning engaged with my broker to get that process underway," Wood said.
Wood bought the shares in the 90s. All MPs are required to disclose any financial interest in what's known as the Pecuniary Interests Register - it's a public document.
Wood never disclosed them when he first came into Parliament.
"In that period while I was an MP, previous to being a minister, that was simply an oversight," said Wood.
Three years later, when he became a minister, he declared the shares to the Cabinet Office - the office that deals with conflicts of interest.
He still didn't put them on the public register and he told the Cabinet Office he was going to sell them.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, as painfully recounted by the Prime Minister, Wood has been repeatedly told to sort his shares out.
Wood tried to avoid media after the revelation.
Asked why he was told 12 times and he didn't sell the shares, Wood said: "As I've explained, the Cabinet Office provide advice. They provided that advice to me. I should have responded to it with more urgency. I didn't."
While holding these shares, Wood made the decision to decline North Shore Aerodrome's application for airport authority status, but the Prime Minister doesn't see the need for an investigation.
Willis said he should be fired.
Hipkins was asked if Wood would be a minister come the election.
"I have trust and confidence in Michael," Hipkins said after a pause.
The statement was hardly full of confidence
Jenna Lynch Analysis
So would the Prime Minister really sack Wood altogether?
It would take a major extra transgression for Wood to be fired.
There's no suggestion that has held onto the shares for financial gain, and in fact, he denied that.
But since the Cabinet Office first hit him up about it, the share price has increased 11.5 percent - so he has been making money - but only about $1,300. That isn't even half a percent of his near on $300,000 salary.
So it is absolutely baffling that he hasn't sorted this issue out - it is not worth it.
The Prime Minister is clearly frustrated and seems as perplexed as the rest of us as to why Wood left this political ticking timebomb hanging over his head.
Wood does not have an plausible explanation for that.
That leaves others to muse - was it incompetence or arrogance?
