18 Mar 2014

Talks on Manus Island on agenda for Australian PM's visit to PNG

7:14 am on 18 March 2014

Talks are set to focus on the Manus Island detention centre when Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, meets with the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, this week.

Tony Abbott is making his first trip to Papua New Guinea since becoming Prime Minister, and the issues surrounding the riots at the Manus island centre, which resulted in one death and dozens of injuries, will be top of the agenda.

The media advisor to PNG Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, Daniel Korimbao, says this has raised a lot of questions about how the camps are being managed and who should be in charge of them.

He says all of this will be addressed as soon as investigations determine what actually happened that night.

"Whether there was criminality involvement, and by who. I guess going foward the plans about it's future, management of the camp going forward, will be among the recommendations made as a result of those investigations.

Daniel Korimbao says Peter O'Neill intends to assure Tony Abbott of PNG's ongoing committment to have the processing centre continue.

Tony Abbott will be in PNG from Thursday until Saturday.