The Maori Party is suggesting a $500 tax free payment to pensioners and poverty-stricken families with children to help them get through the Christmas period.
It has costed the payment at $136.5 million, and the party says it would help the economy as well because people would spend it.
The Christmas gift idea was announced by Angeline Greensill, the Maori Party's Hauraki-Waikato candidate who is trailing Labour's Nanaia Mahuta in the polls.
She said families living in poverty should get $500 for each child and superannuitants should get $500 each.
Co-leader Pita Sharples said it was part of an economic package the Maori Party had designed which included removing GST from food, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and cutting taxes for low income families.
"Food bank use and loan sharking is on the rise and this is but one measure to alleviate that pressure," he said.
