Coming up on Te Karere... MBIE have released the latest tourism visitor report showing that majority of tourists enjoyed Māori experiences. The inaugural Kura Reo mo Te Tai Ao, tasked with revitalising and normalising te reo and Maori customs outdoors is taking place in the Ngati Tarawhai region of Rotorua. The hurricanes Poua continues to be under fire over their haka in the weekend, calling the government "rednecks". 6 March 2924 Tēnā koutou katoa, and welcome to Te Karere. More visitors have added Aotearoa to their bucket list because they want to experience the scenery and found the trip improved their understanding of the Māori culture. The latest tourism visitor report from MBIE shows what tourists have been doing when they are visiting the country, and how much they've spent. (706,300 Tourist 2023) - gfx ($9.9 Billion) - gfx MBIE's international survey reveals Australia. The US and China were the top visitor markets between October and December contributing $2.7 billion that quarter. They spent on average over three hundred dollars a day. ($339.50 a day ) - gfx And stayed on average for 10 days. And while here most visitors surveyed say they found the trip improved their understanding of Māori culture. After layoffs during covid it's positive for the sector which employs over three hundred thousand people. Business correspondent Katie Bradford takes a look at how the industry is tracking and what its future looks like. Timoti Tiakiwai has this report. Visitors are flocking to New Zealand, getting their money's worth out of the experiences here. So, tourists don't only just have a nice experience but they are connected to the land, to the people, and to travel. As of last year, visitors have contributed nearly ten billion dollars to the economy. The iconic geothermal park of Te Puia Tourism in Rotorua is seeing 225,000 visitors post Covid-19. NZ Māori Tourism is also seeing a better return on its investments from these Māori activities. USA and China were the top visitor markets between October and December, contributing 2.7 billion dollars that quarter. The big question is what's in the future for the Māori tourism industry. Timoti Tiakiwai , Te Karere Hurricanes Poua continue to be in hot water over their haka in the weekend, calling the government "rednecks". What it is being considered as a protest, some also see it as brave attempt to push back against recent actions of the government. Kruze Tangira has more. The message remains, the women aren't going anywhere. I must acknowledge the bravery of these women, the bravery to express their thoughts. And Perese is standing by her actions, releasing these comments after the incident. According to Mataia Keepa this is another attempt of corporation interfering with Māori tradition. Now I'm seeing the corporation world interferring with Māori practices. However, it's a much different view from the CEO, saying this protest has caused more controversy than anything. Adding to his thoughts, he believes it isn't the Hurricanes' job to protest like they did. But according to Keepa, sports and politics have always gone hand in hand. It's hard to separate sports and politics. Te Karere reached out to Perese, unfortunately she couldn't talk but she did say they and others are meeting tomorrow. Kruze Tangira, Te Karere. The inaugural Kura Reo mo te Tai Ao, tasked with revitalizing and normalizing Te Reo and Māori customs outdoors is taking place in the Ngāti Tarawhai region of Rotorua. Keen learners are on the outskirts of Lake Okataina and Lake Rotoiti to learn from language experts in the fields of conservation, Maramataka, star gazing and more. Harata Brown has more. Going outdoors... ...normalising te reo in the great forest of Tane. The language is a window into Te Ao Māori. But Te Ao Māori started in the environment. The internal forces, the external forces, the internal forces within man that's what is meant by the term taiao (the environment). A kura reo ran by this descendant of Ngāti Tarāwhai and his group, Te Tira Whakamataki. The idea came to me to run an environment focused kura reo to learn things about the language connected to the outdoors firstly. Secondly, putting those aspects of the language to work to ensure that these important lessons don't just sit dormant in a book or a classroom. So, what I'd like with the students is for them to form a connection between the environment and the culture. And, star gazing experts were brought on and traditional voyaging wayfinders to revive each language subdomain of the environment. What's your responsibility? Stars. Same old topic. So, it is about the stars but I'd like to deliver new information on the stars, but not Matariki. There are a lot of constellations. So, in Hokianga things are different and so the applicable information given is different. The environments are different to each other. I'd like to go everywhere where our people stayed and restore and revive the oral traditions of our ancestors and going back to our waka like the great navigator Nukutawhiti and others. The language comes from the environment, truly, it's returning the indigenous language of the land to the land. Harata Brown Te Karere The Coalition Government has announced a series of first steps it has taken to end the large-scale use of emergency housing, including meeting its First 100 Day plan to establish a Priority One category for families with children in emergency housing, helping them to move into social housing faster. Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka joins us live to discuss. Tama thank you for joining us on the show today Greetings my good sir. Here's the first question coming your way. What is the difference between Labour's Emergency Housing Policy and National's? Why will your one be better? Is your strategy better than there's? For a long time I have been disappointed to see these young people living in motels and hotels around the country. But there are just so many living this way in Hamilton and Rotorua. And what we are boldly saying is that we need to decrease the number of children living in these places. We need to speed up their exit from these places and get them into social housing or elsewhere. What is the criteria for Priority One category and who will be left out of this category? We know that probably there are around 3000 whānau living in this situation. There are also a number of Māori. 60 per cent are Māori families. This Priority One category will cover around 800 whānau with tamariki. So, that's what we're not happy about and are worried for at the moment. It's the young children who are staying in motel accommodation for around 12 weeks and it's those whānau who will be accelerated into social housing accommodation. Something I'm hearing Minister, MSD staff will be heightening their assessment on people applying for emergency housing, could this cause more homelessness? What we've seen recently is a lot of people are living in motels and they will be exiting. Some will go into social housing, others will go into other accommodation such as private rentals. Others will go elsewhere. So yes, some MSD staff members might make a noise but what we're saying is that workers needs to ask straight and direct questions to those who are after rooms in motel accommodation. They're not to be offensive to those who are on struggle street but they need to be really expert and knowledgeable about what these whānau need. And, no doubt it's been heard, we are really good at supporting, and have stated to property owners “you aren't opening your doors to these whānau. The time has come for you to open your doors to these whānau.” That's from us as well as the legal arrangements where it can be said by that group of property owners that they can open their doors to those kind of whānau. Thank you, thank you very much my very good friend. Thank you for those excellent answers. I know that te iwi Māori will support it if it's going to be beneficial to whānau Māori. So, I'd like to thank you, my chief, Tama Pōtaka, tēnā koe e hoa. Tēnā koe e taku hoa matatau rawa. After the break, Māori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi joins us live to discuss the latest in politics. Rawiri thank you for joining today. Kia ora, Scotty, otirā, kia ora tatou. I'm excited to talk to you about this subject and I've already heard some of your thoughts. Let's start with the Hurricanes Poua haka where they call the government rednecks. As they say in English, the truth hurts! Yes, and perhaps that's the response to that question. They're not one for messing around, they're very right in what they've said. And that's what makes haka great. The things that stir up in the heart aren't suppressed, addressing issues that are on the lips of Māori. So, I support the ladies. That's the problem, it's the women who are opening this up. They're the ones leading the people in these issues. The challenge now is where are the men's teams in following our women's teams with haka. They shouldn't be left out in the cold. They need to go out and support our women. Just like what happens on our marae, kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa etc. It's the women who are leading us. So, my message to the men's team is to step up! And I'm disappointed with what the CEO of the Hurricanes franchise has said, saying the women are dividing the public instead of bringing them together which is what the Hurricanes want. I thought to myself well it's the Government who are being divisive. What the women are doing is bringing everyone together, right? Yes. Māori are united with the Hurricanes Poua team. I'd like to praise them. My message to the CEO operator is the problem is that they're not Māori. They don't grasp tikanga or the nature of haka. Bro, if what the women from the Hurricanes Poua have been saying is giving him grief, mate, he needs to come to Matatini, to kapa haka events. He needs to come to Te Arawa. That's when you'll really hear the hard truth. Too right. Maybe that's what the CEO will have ahead of them on their agenda with finding someone who is an exponent in haka to sit with them and discuss with them the finer details of haka so they can understand why the Hurricane Poua did what they did. My friend, issue number two. Children's Minister... Hold on Scotty. The problem is that I'm not a person who supports Wellington's Hurricanes. But thanks to this haka, I might actually find a new supporter for them within myself due to that haka. You and me both. Maybe we'll switch from the Chiefs to the Hurricanes now bro! Just the women's team! Children's Minister Karen Chhour is set to deliver on her promise to crack down on youth offending by trialling military-style bootcamps by mid-year. She says it will help reform children who have fallen afoul of the law. What's your take on this? I don't support it. I don't support Oranga Tamariki in running it. In the reports Oranga Tamariki has produced over the years they have been proven as inappropriate for looking after Māori children. Also, the National government tried this in 2008 with establishing military camps for young people. It didn't work, there's nothing to show for it other than 80 per cent returned to offending following entry into those military bootcamps. So, this government does not follow research, or what previous governments have advised. Also, they are establishing a programme that doesn't work. Te Pāti Māori says resources should be diverted to Māori services, to Māori health, to Whānau Ora and whānau themselves so they can achieve what we want and that's fixing ourselves up. The problem is they don't take into consideration the origin of all of this with what's going on with our young people. It's poverty that's the major factor here. We need to look into it more closely. I've listened closely to what the Māori Development Minister has had to say when it comes to housing. This is what I'm hearing. ‘These Māori are OK to go into these places, but these Māori, because they don't have children, are getting the drop.' Everyone needs to be lifted up. There are 200,000 places that are unoccupied here in Aotearoa. It's not the issue that there are no houses. It's looking into those issues directly that the Government will have the solutions. It's poverty. Poverty is the genesis of all the problems that besiege us. Great, great friend. It's been awesome to go through these current affairs with clarity of thought. Thank you brother Rawiri, thank you. Te Karere has been honoured with your presence today. Thanks. Thank you. After the break we have the weather. To the weather now. For weather, see tvnz.co.nz. That's all we have for today. Turou Hawaiki. Captions were made possible with funding from Te Māngai Pāho. Copyright TVNZ 2020.