Paula Bennett defends National's ad attacking KiwiBuild - labelled 'sexist' by some - as 'just a bit of humour'

National’s Deputy Leader Paula Bennett has defended the Party’s latest attack ad which has been criticised as "sexist" by some.

"It’s great," she said. "It uses a bit of humour to actually get the point across that this is a government that’s failing on one of its biggest promises around housing."

The video depicts a man simply explaining Labour's KiwiBuild scheme missing targets, to a woman.

Some people have criticised the ad a "patronising" towards women, outdated and "embarrassingly awkward".

One Twitter user slammed the ad, describing it as: "Mansplaining, sexist symbolism & fear based marketing. Embarrassingly awkward".

Another Twitter user wrote: "Cripes. This is so blatantly patronising I laughed out loud".

One Twitter user also suggested the theme of the ad was outdated, saying, "Hey @NZNationalParty it's not 1892. Women can vote now."

However, Ms Bennett believed people were just keen to "jump on a bandwagon" and couldn't see how some people would describe the add as patronising and sexist.

"There's just no sexism in it.

"Everyone’s just so keen to leap on some … slight to agenda that they can’t see something for the humour it is."

"It could have been a man, it could have been a woman. I don’t think it’s about gender, I think that it's about a failing government."