Coming up on Te Karere... The child poverty report is released... Child poverty dominates the attention of politicians now, but how far will that go? Tau Henare gives up a bid for a top job in Parliament and blames the Maori Party. The Maori language gets a boost with the township of Wairoa aiming to be bilingual and the development of a new online tool for information about Maori language speakers in Australia. Due to the live nature of Te Karere, some segments will not be subtitled. Tena koutou katoa, and welcome to Te Karere. Question time in Parliament has been dominated by the children's commissioner report on Maori child report. Greens say 36,000 children are admitted to hospital with poverty related illnesses. The Maori Party - wants all 80 recommendations adopted. John Key wants to see significant advances in child protection and believes there are policies in place that already meet many of the report's recommendations. NZ's prosperity as a nation depends on addressing Maori child poverty, according to the report. The head of the report's taskforce says Maori child poverty has received little attention but that must change to avoid hardship on future generations. We'll all benefit if the issue of child poverty is addressed. The expert advisory group gave 78 recommendations to the Children's Commissioner and today the report was released. The group says the food in schools programme needs to be extended no matter the cost. The report supports the Whanau Ora concept and wants the government to make a child poverty act to monitor this issue. They also say if housing was seriously addressed it would have a positive flow on effect for things like health and education. The government says there are policies in place that already meet many of the report's recommendations. They're hopeful families and communities will take the report's findings on board for the sake of the children. Irena Smith, Te Karere. Shortly we'll speak to Pita Sharples of the Maori Party about their response to child poverty, abuse and neglect. But to other political stories... The Prime Minister wants to know what the now-independent MP Brendan Horan is accused of doing. Mr Horan was kicked out of NZ First last week after allegations he stole from his late mother's bank account. But he insists he's done nothing wrong. Phone records show he called the TAB 12 times in just one day. John Key doesn't think that's a hanging offence. John Key says he's not willing to cast Brendan Horan's proxy vote until he knows the full story. Tau Henare has given up on a bid to become Parliament's speaker of the house. The National MP says the Maori Party's decision to pull its support signalled the death knell. Mr Henare confirmed his decision today after hinting at it earlier on twitter. He said it was a shame someone who wanted the job badly hadn't been given a chance, while another MP who didn't want the post ended up being a frontrunner. He was referring to primary industries Minister David Carter, who said it would be a great honour to be appointed as the speaker. After the break, we speak to Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples and according to new figures more Maori are speaking Maori in Australia - we speak to one of them in Sydney. All three Maori Party MPs have expressed anger as they fronted a press conference on solutions to child poverty, abuse and neglect. Pita Sharples, Tariana Turia and Te Ururoa Flavell are urging the government to take up all 78 recommendations made by the expert advisory group on solutions for child poverty. Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples joins me now from Wellington. How many reports do we need to tell us we have a problem and something needs to be done? We're unable to provide subtitles. Pita Sharples, thank you for joining us. The remote Central North Island village of Kaingaroa is where many Maori lived while planting the country's largest pine forest early last century. With the decline in forestry, the village and its residents have suffered. But recently they were granted a surprising windfall. Hinerangi Goodman has the details. Although Kaingaroa township is right in the midst of Kaingaroa Forest, there's been no acknowledgement of any sort given to the people who live there. It's strange that other iwi have already settled, and yet the people there haven't received anything. That's not right. Many of those who have always lived here are from Tuhoe, so it's right that Te Kotahi a Tuhoe are attentive to this issue. It's about cultural redress and going back to where the old kainga used to be and a historian has helped us. The 2000ha set aside will continue to be planted in forests. All those lands have pine trees planted on them Tuhoe has decided that money generated from those lands are then given back to Te Huinga Waka Marae. However, now that plans are underway the people of Kaingaroa can now look forward to a brighter future and new beginnings. It's hoped that the deal will go through by the end of next year. Hinerangi Goodman, Te Karere. The latest Australian Census figures show just under 10,000 speakers of the Maori language currently live in Australia. A new online tool has been developed to give greater detail about the Australian Maori language community, from age and gender to the city and suburb they live in. Anzac Pikia has more. Of the 140,000 Maori living in Australia, almost 10,000 speak Maori. If you go to visit this website created by an Australian TV channel, you can click on different states and suburbs within Australia, which would then produce the number of Maori language speakers who live in the area. I didn't really know there were that many Maori speakers in Australia, so it's good. Easy to see where they are in the country. The statistics come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. And one of the great things about the tool is that it makes it all easy to understand. Even though there's not much text, there's a lot of information in the interactive map and images. 80% of Maori living there were born in NZ. It's good to see the amount of people who speak the language. Crawford says there are examples here which could be taken on board by Statistics NZ. If people went to visit our website then they'd be able to see some of these info graphics. So we're currently working on those now. The NZ Census will be carried out next year in March. Anzac Pikia, Te Karere. After the break, We continue with the theme of the language and look at what the township of Te Wairoa. and look at what the township of Te Wairoa. To the weather now. For weather, see tvnz.co.nz. The Hawkes Bay township of Wairoa has launched a new language strategy called Wairoa Reorua. The plan outlines how it will become a bilingual community by the year 2040. Raiha Johns has this report. The township of Wairoa has launched their language strategy called Wairoa Reorua. English is being spoken in the community to the point where people think Maori is only for during school hours. The difference of this community strategy is that it was created by Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairoa. It could be laziness. As well as it not being heard around town. HRC and the Maori Language Commission had a hand in some parts of the strategy. I went and hit the streets of Wairoa to see whether the community agreed for Te Reo to become their main language. It's the correct language of this area. This is our sacred language that was handed down from the gods to us. The strategy aims for the town to become biligual by the year 2040. If we follow the right track then I believe something good will come out of it. And if not? It will be lost and I would never agree for that to happen. It seems the community is of the same mind. Raiha Johns, Te Karere. That's all we have for today. Turou Hawaiki. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ on Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012.