Tagata o te Moana. 2014-03-22. 17:30-18:00.

A weekly wrap-up of news, issues and current affairs from the Pacific. The programme is broadcast nationwide every Saturday evening on Radio New Zealand National and is produced by the newsroom of Radio New Zealand International. The following rundown is supplied from the broadcaster’s news system:

1. Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has received assurances from his Papua New Guinea counterpart on commitment to the Manus Island asylum seeker centre.

2. Coinciding with Tony Abbott's PNG trip, the asylum seeker facility on Manus has been opened up for media for the first time since it reopened in 2012.

3. In May Pacific leaders are to meet in Rarotonga to consider a review into the Pacific Islands Forum's blue print for closer links.

4. A Vanuatu pastor is supporting calls for harsher penalties for women who kill their babies immediately after birth, but says the fathers also need to be held accountable.

5. The Citizen's Constitutional Forum in Fiji says it is confident the Electoral Commission is doing all it can to ensure people are able to exercise their right to vote in September.

6. Police in Papua New Guinea say they can't do anything about a video that's surfaced on the internet showing a pack of police dogs brutally attacking an unarmed man.

7. The groundwork for an operation in Bougainville to remove unexploded Second World War bombs is underway, with two Australian ships surveying the sea.

8. An opposition MP [i.e. John Silk] says the Marshall Islands government deliberately attempted to usurp the constitution and laws of the country with its nomination to UNESCO of a Lebanese official.