The prime minister has faced further questions on Michael Wood’s failure to properly disclose his Auckland Airport shares, saying the transport minister himself “didn’t really have an adequate explanation” for the oversight.

Speaking at this afternoon’s post-cabinet press conference, Chris Hipkins said he trusted that Wood, who was earlier today stood down from the transport portfolio, had told him the full story, but “I’m not sure there really is an adequate explanation.”

Wood had told the Cabinet Office that he was selling the shares, but it didn’t happen. “It’s clearly been on his to-do list and he hasn’t done it,” said Hipkins. “It would simply be one of those life admin tasks that he hasn’t got round to. I don’t think that’s acceptable. He said a number of times he was going to dispose of them.”

Pressed on the number of times Wood had been reminded to dispose of his shares, Hipkins said “half a dozen”.

The government has announced new vaping restrictions aimed at reducing the number of young people who take up the habit, with a crackdown on cheap disposable vapes, bans on new vape shops near schools and rules around how vaping products can be named.

“From August this year, all vaping devices sold in New Zealand will need to have removable or replaceable batteries,” said health minister Ayesha Verrall in a statement announcing the new rules. “This limits the sale of cheap disposable vapes that are popular among young people.”

New vape shops won’t be able to open within 300m of schools and marae, vapes will need child safety mechanisms, and only generic names will be allowed to describe the flavours on offer, which will put an end to “potentially enticing names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry jelly donut’, said Verrall.

Speaking at the post-cabinet press conference this afternoon, Verrall confirmed the ban on shops near schools would not affect existing shops or dairies that sell vaping products.

“We recognise we need to strike a balance between preventing young people from starting to vape, at the same time as having vapes available as a cessation tool for those who genuinely want to give up smoking,” Verrall added.

A key reason for standing down Michael Wood as transport minister was the fact he had told the Cabinet Office his shares in Auckland Airport would be sold, but then they weren’t, Chris Hipkins has said.

On his way to question time in parliament this afternoon, soon after he announced Wood would be losing his portfolio, the prime minister told media, “One of the challenges is that the Cabinet Office had been advised by [Wood] on a number of occasions that he was divested himself of the shares and that clearly hasn’t happened. That is quite a material issue.”

Explaining the error, Wood said, “So I started the process of selling the shares last year, basically came across a hitch which is that I needed information back from the share register that didn’t arrive, I think because they had an old email address and, in the reality of the fairly busy life that I have, I didn’t get back to it.

“Now, that’s not an excuse, that’s the honest answer.”

He felt Hipkins’ decision was “the appropriate one”, said Wood. “I accept it with good grace, I made a mistake here, I accept that, that’s on me and the appropriate thing that I do now is to fix that.”

He would be completing the sale of his airport shares in the coming days, said Wood.

On whether there was a way back in for Wood, Hipkins said, “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.”

He hadn’t offered to stand down from the transport portfolio, said Wood, but he and Hipkins had had a “constructive discussion” during which the prime minister set out “clear expectations” about what Wood must do.

Wood said he was “enormously disappointed” to have to let go of the portfolio, and hoped he would be returned the transport portfolio after the shares were sold.

Meanwhile, Hipkins and acting transport minister Kieran McAnulty have faced questions in the house over the controversy. Asked by National leader Christopher Luxon why Wood had retained his Auckland issues portfolio when the council was actively considering selling its shares in the airport, Hipkins responded that Wood would have no role in conversations about that.

To a suggestion that Hipkins waited for his ministers to be “caught out publicly before reluctantly taking action”, the prime minister said, “I completely reject that.”

Michael Wood has been stood down as transport minister after it was revealed he had not properly disclosed owning shares in Auckland Airport.

“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,” prime minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement.

“This will be effective immediately. Hon Kieran McAnulty will be acting minister of transport.”

Hipkins said Wood “indicated to me his intention to sell the shares in Auckland International Airport as soon as possible”.

Chris Hipkins had yet to decide on the future of transport minister Michael Wood at this morning’s caucus run, after it was revealed Wood had failed to properly disclose shares he owned in Auckland Airport.

At the Beehive, the prime minister told media he still hadn’t had a chance to sit down with Wood but would do so imminently, and answer further questions at his post-cabinet press conference, which is at 4pm. Hipkins would not be drawn on the minister’s future but said the situation was “certainly not helpful”.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Christopher Luxon told media Hipkins should have suspended Wood as soon as he found about the shares on Friday.

Wellington has won $650,000 to put towards its rapid bike lane rollout, securing a spot alongside nine other cities on the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure. 

Announced late last week, the prize recognises the capital’s Paneke Pōneke bike network plan, which is in the process of increasing 23km of cycleways to 166km, and will provide “technical assistance on project development, cycling facility design, data collection, and resident engagement” along with the US$400,000 funding. The other cities, chosen from a pool of 270, are in Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Kenya, Mozambique and Portugal.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the award was an endorsement of the city’s rapid rollout approach and the money would in part go towards progressing “a nature-based, off-road bike network”.

In a press release, Whanau said the council was accelerating the city’s bike network after Wellingtonians asked for action on transport, climate and housing.

“While we are doing what the majority of people have asked for, it was important that we also incorporated a robust way for the public to provide feedback. We have done that and it will lead to further cycling network improvements.”

But the plan has been met with criticism from some quarters, with the High Court last year granting an interim injunction to halt construction on the Newtown cycleway following opposition from a group of businesses.

Last week, Whanau said she was “heckled and booed” at a residents meeting, with comments from the crowd including “no one supports cycleways”. 

Fiji’s new prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka has arrived in the country and will spend Wednesday in Wellington where he’ll meet with prime minister Chris Hipkins, foreign affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta and minister for climate change James Shaw. Rabuka became prime minister last year after a tumultuous election, where his party People’s Alliance were eventaully able to form a coalition with the Social Democrat Liberal Party. Back home, Rabuka is dealing with an unprecedented economic crisis, with the World Bank reporting that the country’s debt levels reached 90% of GDP last year. Rabuka has conceded that the new coalition government’s first budget, due to be released on June 30, will not be a popular one.

Hipkins has also been offered chance to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv when he attends a NATO summit in July.

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The Make it 16 group has welcomed a review of our electoral laws that suggested lowering the voting age.

It was part of a swathe of initial recommendations made by the panel, ahead of further public consultation. Read all the top lines from the review here.

In a statement, Make it 16’s co-director Sage Garrett said he called on “all MPs” to listen to the experts and support a change in the voting age. “Every party must back young people and support our human rights,” he said.

“Right now, the best thing parliament can do to give effect to the expert recommendations from this review and the Review into the Future of Local Government is to make the voting age 16 for local elections. Young people deserve a say in local government decisions, and local government needs rangatahi.”

Garrett said young people deserve to have a say in issues around transport and the climate crisis. “We understand how constitutionally difficult it is to change the voting age for general elections. But the local elections change can be made now. It is time.”

Prime minister Chris Hipkins told RNZ that Labour would make its position on electoral law reform clear ahead of the election and no changes would be made prior.

We’re back after a long weekend and what a morning of news we have today. Another senior MP could end up before the privileges committee and a major review of our electoral laws has recommended changes, including the lowering of the voting age.

We’ll start with the former. The Herald has all the details about Michael Wood, the transport minister, who holds shares in Auckland Airport. An enraged Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB questioned this morning how Wood was able to hold those shares while leading a project to build an Auckland train line out to the airport.

Speaking to the prime minister, Hosking asked whether it would be an instant sacking offence. “I don’t have all the facts,” said Chris Hipkins. “I want to have a further conversation with [Wood] before I make any judgement on that.”

The prime minister said a train line out to the airport was a Labour Party position before Wood became the transport minister. However, he said questions would be asked of the minister today. Of the shares: “My understanding was he gave instructions for them to be diversed some time ago but that might not have been actioned,” he said.

Wood had held the shares since he was a teenager, amounting to about $13,000, said the prime minister. They had been declared to the cabinet office, but it’s unknown why that declaration wasn’t shared wider and why the PM and others weren’t aware.

“I like to assemble all the facts before I make a decision,” Hipkins said.

National’s acting Auckland spokesperson Paul Goldsmith later told RNZ he believed Wood’s position as minister of transport was “untenable”.