James Gau Gelak (born 19 September 1957) is a Papua New Guinean politician. He was a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea from 2010 to 2017, representing the electorate of Rai Coast Open for the National Alliance Party (2010-2012) and Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party (2012-2017).[1] He was also Governor of Madang Province from January 2011 until the 2012 election.[2] [3]
Gau is the son of Gau Yabile, a former member of the Madang Provincial Assembly during the 1970s and 1980s.[4] He was educated at Male Primary School, Tusbab High School and Lae Technical College. He was a civil engineering technical officer for the Department of Works prior to entering politics.
He was elected to the National Parliament as a National Alliance candidate at a May 2010 by-election following the death of his predecessor Niuro Toko Sapia. He has been a supporter of the Ramu nickel mine project, declaring that it "must be allowed to go ahead" and regularly criticising mine opponents.[5] [6] In January 2011, he was elected Governor of Madang Province to serve out the remainder of the term of previous Governor Arnold Amet, who had been appointed Attorney-General.[2] He supported Peter O'Neill's August 2011 ouster of Michael Somare as Prime Minister, subsequently declaring that the new government was a "divine intervention".[7]
In January 2012, he was among a number of National Alliance MPs to switch to the new Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party.[8] Gau subsequently became the party's deputy leader for the Momase Region.[9] He was re-elected in his Rai Coast seat as a Triumph Heritage Empowerment candidate at the 2012 election, having opted not to recontest the permanent governorship.[10] He moved to the crossbenches following Prime Minister O'Neill's sacking of party leader Don Polye in early 2014, and moved to the opposition in November 2014.[11] In February 2015, he was named Shadow Minister for Works and Transport by now Opposition Leader Polye.[12] He serves as chairman of the Inter-Government Relations Referral Committee, deputy chairman of the Communications Referral Committee, and as a member of the Pensions and Retirement Benefits Permanent Committee.
He lost his seat to Peter Sapia, the son of his predecessor as MP for Rai Coast, at the 2017 election.[13] [14]