Nemani Gabriel Mati spent 32 years in the civil service. He was a high school teacher for 9 years, a statistician in the Bureau of Statistics for 10 years, then a Parliamentary Research Officer for 4 years before finishing off the remaining 9 years as a public policy analyst in the Prime Minister’s Office. 

A third generation working class Catholic, Nemani holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics from USP, a Master of Commerce degree in Economics also from USP and a Master of Development Administration degree from ANU. He was born on 10/05/54 in Vatukoula and attended Vatukoula Government Primary School and Ratu Kadavulevu School. 

Nemani has a working background in data collection, processing, analysis, interpretation and report writing. He held various part time jobs while working on his undergraduate degree at USP. 

Nemani was a proof reader with Fiji Times newspaper and a research assistant in renewable energy projects with USP’s Department of Physics and Government’s Department of Energy and a Department of Information/UNFPA funded project for Village Participation in Population and Development. For a brief period during the 2000 coup de tat, Nemani was transferred to the Public Service Commission Appeals Board before returning to his normal job as Principal Administration Officer (Library, Research and Media) in the Veiuto Parliamentary Complex.

 Since retiring from the Civil Service in June 2012, he has worked as a: (i) data analyst in the 2012/13 Constitution Commission; (i) Local Consultant in a UNDP funded Fiji Democratic Governance Analysis and (iii) Research Officer in a Prime Minister’s Office funded Parliamentary Institutional Strengthening Project. In August 2017, Nemani worked briefly as a Research Assistant for Dr Asaeli Tuibeqa, Associate Professor in Economics, FNU, in a survey of Small Business in five municipalities in Fiji (Nausori, Nasinu, Suva, Sigatoka and Lautoka). 

From September 2017 to March 2021, Nemani taught Technical English at Montfort Boys Town. During this period he also worked part-time as a media analyst for an NGO-Media Monitoring Group covering the lead up to the 2018 Elections. Since April 2021, Nemani has tutored in Physics and Mathematics at a family-run Tutorial Centre, Café 6, Level 4, World Harvest Church Commercial Building, Kinoya. 

He is married to Mima Radiniwasa and they have three children. In his spare time, Nemani is an avid walker, road runner, swimmer, poet, scribbler and collector of rare books, vinyl records, music and movie DVDs.