The instagram post from Chris Bishop that featured a Christchurch homeowner's house. Photo: Instagram
A Christchurch homeowner was shocked to see her house featured in an Instagram post by Housing Minister Chris Bishop, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka and other National MPs about building more social housing.
It was part of an announcement by the government on Wednesday that would see $140 million in new funding for 1500 new social housing places from July next year.
The post featured six privately-owned homes in central Christchurch.
One of the owners, Beth, said she was in shock when she saw her home all over social media.
"I was appalled really, on the one hand I thought: 'oh, is this what they are touting as what social housing will look like?'.
"'But then on the other hand I thought: 'no way, they are taking images from anywhere, so it doesn't really mean anything'," she said.
Beth said a blunder like this from the National Party was unacceptable
"If you are going to build 1500 social housing houses, then I think maybe you should have a better idea of what exactly it is you are going to be building, rather than taking an image from somewhere. Who knows how they got the image of our houses, and posting it up as something that is blatantly not true," she said
In a statement, a spokesperson for the National Party said:
"In a social media post to promote the government's commitment in the upcoming Budget to build more social housing, National used stock photographs of housing. Following contact from a member of the public linked to the property the post was replaced."
All the posts on social media have since been removed.
Beth said despite the blunder, she did not want an apology.
