Candidate accuses Maori Party of "policy theft"

The Maori Party's announcement that it intends a lower eligibility age for Maori superannuants has been slammed by Hapu Party leader, David Rankin, as "policy theft".

"We announced this identical policy on 20 September. There were news items at that time detailing our plans. And now, a month later, the Maori party announce the same thing and claim it as their own. We have a word for that sort of behaviour, and that word is theft", said an angry Mr. Rankin.

"To me, what this shows is that the Maori Party is intellectually impoverished, said Mr Rankin.

"Their MP's have never had a private sector job – they are either former beneficiaries, or former recipients of Government grants. And it is obvious that they lack the intellectual rigour to devise their own policies, and so have resorted to pinching others".

Mr. Rankin has said that he will be launching an internal investigating among his members to see if there was any leak, and has warned that he will publicise the findings as soon as anything is discovered. "If there has been any infiltration of our party by our opponents", he says, " we will refer the matter to the appropriate authorities".

And in a final twist to this episode, Mr. Rankin stated that if the Maori Party had approached him directly to assist with their policy development, he would have helped. "What matters to me more than elections and politics is the good of our people", he said. "If there is any way or anything I can do to achieve that, then I will do it".

ENDS

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