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A Health NZ job advertisement for Greymouth with the word "homophobicmotivated" in the job description was probably "some disgruntled employee," says the local man who spotted the ad.
The job vacancy via the Te Whatu Ora website, seeking an "enthusiastic booking co-ordinator" in the Greymouth Central Booking Unit, was spotted on TradeMe and shared by Patrick McBride via his Facebook page this morning.
"The Central Booking Unit (CBU) is looking for a homophobicmotivated, enthusiastic booking co-ordinator to join our team," the job advert said.
It was pulled down shortly after a member of the public alerted the Greymouth Star, which in turn called Health NZ.
The Greymouth woman who initially alerted the Star noted the advert as "not a good look".
Mr McBride said he decided to share the post after flicking through the latest adverts for job vacancies on the West Coast.
The reaction was almost immediate.
"Obviously it started a hornet's nest pretty quick, so I've taken it down," he said shortly after 10.30am on Friday.
"One of the comments was, 'you could have rung them directly'. But I'm not going to sit on hold for hours."
Mr McBride said he assumed it must be "some disgruntled employee" at Health NZ or a prank.
"I don't think it's a typo."
Health NZ on the West Coast acknowledged shortly before midday they had been made aware of the advertisement.
In a statement at midday, Health NZ said the matter was under investigation.
"This morning, we were alerted to an online careers advertisement which maliciously targeted Te Whatu Ora West Coast, " a West Coast HNZ spokesperson said.
"The content of the advertisement was not approved by Te Whatu Ora, and our third party providers had the advertisement removed as soon as we were notified.
"They are currently investigating how this situation occurred."
- Brendon McMahon, Local Democracy reporter