Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang
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	1953/1954
Died	29 November 2022 (aged 68) Motoʻotua, Samoa
Political party	Human Rights Protection Party

Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang (1953/1954 – 29 November 2022) 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. He was educated at Waikato University in New Zealand and the University of New England in Australia. 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. 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. He was re-elected again in the 2011 election, but replaced as Finance Minister by Faumuina Tiatia Liuga. From 2012 to 2014 Hang opposed plans to replace the individual voter seats with two urban seats.

After serving a term as a backbencher, he was re-appointed to Cabinet following the 2016 election as Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure. 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. He retracted the claim two days later.

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.

Tapunuu died at Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital in Motoʻotua on 29 November 2022, at the age of 68.