Tagata o te Moana. 2014-12-06. 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. Two Papua New Guinea men [i.e. Michael Bolong and Ambros Wavut] who spent five months adrift at sea in a small boat have been released from hospital in the Federated States of Micronesia.

2. Tonga's new MPs are still to determine who might become the country's neww prime minister.

3. Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has defended his government's stewardship of the economy amidst criticism from a rejuvenated opposition.

4. Fiji's ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase says the government has refused to explain why it won't pay him the pension he is due.

5. The reporting on Papua New Guinea issues is said to have gone downhill in the year since the Australian Associated Press closed its PNG bureau.

6. Papua New Guinea continues to be perceived as one of the world's most corrupt countries on this year's Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.

7. The NGO, Pacific Network on Globalisation, says this week's Papua New Guinea Petroleum Conference in Sydney is encouraging investment in destruction.

8. A New Zealand investigative documentary maker [i.e. Alister Barry] says efforts to get international treaties on climate change are being used as a distraction and delaying tactic by corporate lobbyists.