| Jacques Tauraa | |
| Office: | President of the Assembly of French Polynesia |
| Term Start: | 6 November 1962 |
| Term End: | 17 May 1968 |
| Predecessor: | Frantz Vanizette |
| Successor: | Jean Millaud |
| Term Start2: | 20 May 1959 |
| Term End2: | 2 March 1961 |
| Predecessor2: | Georges Leboucher |
| Successor2: | Frantz Vanizette |
| Office7: | Minister of Economic Affairs |
| President7: | Pouvanaa a Oopa |
| Term Start7: | 11 December 1957 |
| Term End7: | 28 October 1958 |
| Constituency Am10: | Windward Islands |
| Assembly10: | French Polynesian |
| Term Start10: | 3 November 1957 |
| Term End10: | 16 May 1968 |
| Birth Date: | 4 February 1920[1] |
| Birth Place: | Papeete, French Polynesia |
| Death Date: | 12 February 1980 |
| Death Place: | Nouméa, New Caledonia |
| Party: | Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People Here Ai'a |
Jacques Tauraa (4 February 1920 — 12 February 1980) was a French Polynesian politician and Cabinet Minister who was the longest-serving president of the Assembly of French Polynesia. He was a member of the Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People (RDPT).
Tauraa was born in Papeete and was a farmer.[1] He was president of the Chamber of Agriculture until 1957, when his membership of the pro-independence Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People caused him to lose the position.[1]
He was elected to the Assembly of French Polynesia in the 1957 French Polynesian legislative election and appointed Minister of Economic Affairs in the government of Pouvanaa a Oopa.[1] [2] He opposed a "no" (pro-independence) vote in the 1958 French Polynesian constitutional referendum.[1] He lost his position as a Minister when the French colonial government dissolved Oopa's government following the referendum, but was subsequently elected by the Assembly to the resulting interim government.[3] In May 1959 he was elected president of the Assembly.[1]
Following Oopa's prosecution, conviction and exile for arson he became the leader of the RDPT.[4] He was re-elected in the 1962 election and elected president of the Assembly, a position he held for the next six years.[1] As president of the Assembly, Tauraa opposed the use of French Polynesia as a nuclear test site.[5] [6] He also supported an income tax to provide financial independence from France.[7]
Following the dissolution of the RDPT by the colonial authorities, Tauraa joined Teariki's Here Ai'a.[1] A dispute with Teariki over who the party should back in the 1965 French presidential election saw Tauraa and many of the RDPT's MP's expelled from the party in 1966.[1] In 1967 he founded a new party, the Regrouping of the Tahitian People, to contest the 1967 election, but failed to secure re-election.[8]