Tagata o te Moana. 2009-07-04

Tagata o te Moana is a weekly round up of news from the Pacific from Radio New Zealand International, broadcast on Radio New Zealand National on Saturdays at 5.30pm. This week's edition is presented by Megan Whelan and the items are:

Reaction to Fiji's plan for a new constitution, work on which won't begin for anothr three years;
An historic ruling by Samoa's Supreme Court, which allows 9 MPs to return to Parliament;
Mixed reaction in Niue to the Premier's criticisms of New Zealand's support in his budget speech;
Opposition and independent parties merge to create Vanuatu's biggest political party;
Vanuatu's prison service becomes one of the first in the Pacific to be demilitarised;
El Nino weather hits Solomon Islands, bringing dry weather and even drought;
The Samoa Tourism Authority hopes the re-opened Fagali'i airport will produce a five percent increase in the number of tourists from American Samoa;
And an Australian pilot who has just returned home from nine months in detention in Indonesia's Papua looks forward to getting on with his life.