Kiwis are tiring of New Zealand's blundering prime minister

It’s all going wrong for New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins. Hipkins’s laidback, convivial persona and managerial skills were seen as a welcome contrast after the loftier ambition but patchy results of his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern. But a series of political scandals and blunders means Kiwis are rapidly tiring of their leader.

The latest trouble involves transport minister Michael Wood, who has been ‘stood down’ after he failed to declare shares in Auckland airport when he became an MP. Hipkins described Wood’s ownership of the stock while he was regulating the aviation industry as ‘not acceptable.’

‘I’m not sure that Michael himself even has a really good explanation for that,’ the PM said. ‘It would simply be one of those life admin tasks that he doesn’t seem to have gotten around to.’

Wood himself eventually shared light on the nature of that ‘life-admin task’.

‘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,’ Wood said.