Joe Natuman
Vanuatuan politician
Joe Natuman (born 24 November 1952) is a Vanuatuan politician of the Vanua'aku Pati and former Prime Minister of Vanuatu.
He is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific, and was also an exchange student at the University of Papua New Guinea.
In the 1980s, he worked in the highest ranks of the civil service, culminating with the position of First Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office from 1987 to 1991, at the time of Prime Minister Walter Lini. He then worked as assistant registrar at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, until 1995.
He entered national politics when he was elected MP for Tanna, representing the Vanua'aku Pati, in the 1995 general election. He has been continuously re-elected since.
From 1996 to 2008, he served in the following positions in successive governments:
Minister for Judicial Services, Culture and Women's Affairs in 1996
Minister for Lands, Energy, Geology and Mines in 1997
Minister for Education in 1998
Minister for Internal Affairs from April to March 2002
Minister for Education in 2004
Minister for Internal Affairs from 2007 to 2008.
While Minister of Education, he was chairman of the Vanuatu National Commission for UNESCO.
Prime Minister Edward Natapei appointed him Minister for Lands in 2008, then reshuffled him to the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs, External Trade and Telecommunications in 2010. Natapei's government was ousted in a motion of no confidence in December 2010, and Natuman sat on the Opposition benches until Serge Vohor ascended to the premiership in a successful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Sato Kilman on Easter Sunday (24 April), 2011, and restored Natuman as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Three weeks later, however, Vohor's election and premiership were voided by the Court of Appeal, and Natuman lost his position in government (13 May).
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q58222. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1987, 1991 and 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joe Natuman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.