Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang | |
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![]() Hang in 2019 | |
Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure | |
In office 18 March 2016 –24 May 2021 | |
Prime Minister | Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi |
Preceded by | Manu'alesagalala Enokati Posala |
Succeeded by | Olo Fiti Vaai |
Minister of Finance | |
In office 24 April 2006 –21 March 2011 | |
Preceded by | Misa Telefoni Retzlaff |
Succeeded by | Faumuina Tiatia Liuga |
Member of the Samoa Parliament for Vaimauga No. 3 | |
In office 9 April 2021 –29 November 2022 | |
Preceded by | none(constituency created) |
Succeeded by | TBA |
Member of the Samoa Parliament for Urban East | |
In office 4 March 2016 –9 April 2021 | |
Preceded by | none(constituency created) |
Member of the Samoa Parliament for Individual Voters | |
In office 18 December 2001 –4 March 2016 | |
Preceded by | Chan Chui Van Sung |
Succeeded by | none(constituency abolished) |
Personal details | |
Born | 1953 or 1954 |
Died | 29 November 2022 (aged 68) Motoʻotua,Samoa |
Political party | Human Rights Protection Party |
Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang (born 1953 or 1954; [1] died 29 November 2022) [2] was a Samoan politician and Cabinet Minister. He was a member of the Human Rights Protection Party.
Hang was an accountant by profession and a former Public Trustee. [1] He was educated at Waikato University in New Zealand and the University of New England in Australia. [1] He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Samoa as one of two parliamentary representatives reserved for Individual Voters in a by-election in December 2001. In January 2002 he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary to Minister of Justice. [3] In 2004 he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary to minister of Revenue. He was re-elected at the 2006 election and appointed Minister of Finance. [4] He was re-elected again in the 2011 election,but replaced as Finance Minister by Faumuina Tiatia Liuga. [5] From 2012 to 2014 Hang opposed plans to replace the individual voter seats with two urban seats. [6] [7]
After serving a term as a backbencher,he was re-appointed to Cabinet following the 2016 election as Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure. [8] [9] In September 2018 he claimed that the chief executive of the Ministry of Works,Afamasaga Su’a Pou Onesemo,had been fired for poor management. [10] He retracted the claim two days later. [11]
Following the abolition of his urban voters seat he contested the new seat of Vaimauga No. 3 in the 2021 Samoan general election and was re-elected. [12]
Tapunuu died at Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital in Motoʻotua on 29 November 2022,at the age of 68. [2]