Former United Future leader Peter Dunne has called the Government out for using "deflection tactics" on New Zealand's growing house price crisis.
"Housing is quickly turning into the Government's Achilles heel," Dunne said in a statement on Thursday.
"The blunt and underlying truth is that for various reasons insufficient new houses have been built under successive Governments. This Government burned its toes sharply when it thought its ill-thought-out Kiwibuild scheme was the answer," he said in op-ed titled The Art of Deflection.
His comments come after Finance Minister Grant Robertson on Tuesday penned a letter to the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) asking how the central authority could help stabilise house prices.
Dunne believes the Government has deflected failings around New Zealand's COVID-19 managed isolation facilities and "the same deflection tactic is now at play in the housing debate".
"It will be able to get away with this type of approach for a little while yet, but it may prove to be a harder tactic to sustain with housing than it has been with COVID-19," he wrote.
Dunne also believes the housing crisis is more "visible and measurable" compared to COVID-19.
"While the Government can probably still extract a little more yet from its empathy and concern cards on housing, it cannot go on doing so indefinitely without the growing public expectation for more and cheaper houses hardening into uncompromising reality."
But Robertson on Wednesday denied the Government was trying to deflect responsibility for the housing crisis.
"We are looking at what more we can do - particularly in demand-side measures - but also in making sure there are more houses available.
"We're living in an area with 15-20 percent house price inflation being a prospect. We have to be calling on all of the tools that are available across the Government."
Dunne said the housing could "blow away the Government's inflated Parliamentary majority".
RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr said on Wednesday the Government was being "courageous in writing an open letter to ask for assistance".
