‘Go now, in peace’
Fa’anānā Efeso Collins, who died suddenly today, gave his maiden statement to Parliament just six days ago.
It was a beautifully written and delivered summary of his life’s journey and family, community spiritual and political inspiration. One viewer tweeted it had a Martin Luther King flavour to it.
The full text is here. And the video of this proud new MP standing to address the 54th Parliament is here.
Collins ended the speech by saying his favourite part of attending Sunday Mass was the priest’s challenge to the congregation in ending the service, with the words: “Go now in peace, to love and serve the Lord”.
The MP added: “It is with that spirit, the spirit of peace and love and service, with which my extended family who are here today come to this House.”
Tragically, his time of service at Parliament was too short. The son, husband and father of two young girls, collapsed and died while at a charity run for clean water for the Pacific in central Auckland on Wednesday morning.
Through his public life as a south Auckland local board chair, Auckland councillor, Auckland mayoral aspirant and candidate and MP for the Greens, Collins never hesitated to express his love for family, for his wife, Fia and daughters Kaperiela and Asalemo.
Call or text him for political comment and he was just as likely to be at a school or a family function or a Mass with his girls.
He always said he stood for mayor so his young daughters and this city “could prosper and flourish”.
His own life journey, a young Samoan son of immigrant, hard-working parents Tauiliili Sio and Lotomau, a local state education and then onto a Master’s degree in education and employment by the University of Auckland was its own form of flourishing. He carried the Samoan matai title of Fa’anānā from the village of Satufia, Satupaitea, Savai’i.
Collins worked in liaison roles for Pasifika youth in Auckland schools, then for a variety of public service agencies and teaching jobs, coming to prominence when elected in 2016 as a councillor for Manukau ward on the Auckland Council.
Young people, Ōtara, the south side of Auckland, Pacific communities, faith and family remained his drivers right through his political life.
One vote, on one issue, at Auckland Council showed both Collins’ commitment to his roots and willingness to stand aside from peer political pressure.
When the council had to vote to back a regional fuel tax in May 2018, Collins could not bring himself to put an extra impost on those in his area who could not afford to pay more.
Collins saw it as regressive, burdening the less well-off with more and disproportionate costs “It’s time to push back,” he said. He was one of two councillors of the ‘left’ (with Mike Lee) to vote against the Labour government measure.
That tax is now about to be abolished, by the other side of politics.
Collins attracted muted, sotto voce and behind-hands comments on occasion about his attendance record at council meetings and events. But he argued being out in his community mattered more than hearing his own voice at the microphone of the council chamber or, during Covid times, on Zoom meetings.
He was heavily involved during the pandemic in efforts in the south of Auckland to raise awareness, vaccination rates and economic protections for his constituents.
His mayoral campaign in 2022 revealed a candidate who was generally softly-spoken, at-times overly rehearsed but occasionally at risk of appearing low-key about the possibility of being mayor. As the contest with Wayne Brown tightened in the final weeks, Collins’ campaign, his stump delivery, and his willingness to ‘push back’ enlivened.
The tall (193cm) Collins, in his campaign uniform of dress jeans and an untucked shirt under his jacket, engaged in scores of public debates across Auckland with Brown and others, but battled in some areas of the city. He chose not to attribute that to any racial or ethnic prejudice.
The communitarian, social justice idealist, left-wing young Pacific man against the older, tell-it-like-it-is Pākehā engineer, former Far North mayor, public sector troubleshooter and businessman ended with a comprehensive win for Brown and his cost-focused ‘fixing’ of Auckland. It was the ‘right’s time.
Interestingly, even after occasionally bruising debates, Collins and Brown had a rapport of sorts, a regard on a non-political level that Mayor Brown spoke of again in tribute on Wednesday. “ He was a good man; my heart goes out to his family. Efeso is someone I had a lot of respect for.
“Although we competed for the mayoralty, we actually became quite good friends and were very respectful of each other.”
On the day he lost, Collins went to a rugby club campaign gathering in Ōtara but it ended up with the candidate comforting upset family members and campaign workers. Newsroom’s Matthew Scott recalls: “He quickly took on a kind of nurturing role, hugging each of the young volunteers and comforting them, saying “It’s all right”.
Collins took a longer view from his tilt at the top job: “I hope that young people and young brown kids in particular look at my candidacy and go ‘wow, its normal now’. My 10-year-old nephew said to me ‘Uncle, I want to be the Mayor of Auckland. Ten years old. It’s normal now, we’ve exposed people.”
Collins had been, for a long time, a Labour Party member and had stood for the party but in that campaign he was an independent, with backing from both Labour and the Greens.
In the months after the mayoral election, he was drawn towards Te Pati Kakariki (the Greens) and won 11th place on their list for the 2023 general election, easily making it to Parliament with the party’s historic success.
The Greens’ twin focal points of poverty and climate change sat most closely with his motivations at a national political level.
Some past comments questioning LGBTQI issues, which were followed by a change through family experiences and a public correction of his past self, did not stand in his way in the new caucus. In his maiden speech Collins acknowledged he had learned.
“I’ve also been on a well-publicised journey in understanding the needs and views of our rainbow communities, and I have a long way to go. And my message to whānau who often experience the sharp end of discrimination—disabled, ethnic, rainbow, brown, seniors, and neurodiverse—is thank you for trusting us with the responsibility of facilitating a new discussion on how we move forward together and make possible what was once deemed impossible.”
The MP was, in a way, living his own dream. As a liaison officer with schools and the university years ago he would hold “dream fono” – meetings encouraging young people to set high, rewarding goals and know they could attain them.
At Parliament he aimed to represent the dreamers, and square pegs, those who might feel they were misfits, forgotten, unloved. Those who wanted more.
Collins was serving on the education and workforce select committee and had spokesperson roles within the Greens for eight portfolio areas, including local government, Pacific peoples and Treaty of Waitangi negotiations.
He gave speeches a total of three times in the House, once in December even before the formal ‘maiden statement’ when the 90-day trials bill was debated (Collins deplored it), his maiden speech, and once the day before he died. On Tuesday he supported a measure over registration of social workers. “Social workers are as important as police officers, because they’re the ones who are walking alongside our communities,” he said.
The tributes in the hours after his death on Wednesday were from across the political spectrum.
First Union’s Dennis Maga said: “Hearts are broken across the union movement today at the loss of a dedicated champion of working people who had an exciting future ahead of him.”
The Taxpayers’ Union’s Jordan Williams lauded Collins’ willingness to engage: “One of his strengths was that he tended to eschew the polarised politics of the modern age.”
An emotional Green Party co-leader James Shaw remembered sitting with Collins at the party’s list-ranking meeting. “And that was when I kind of fell in love with the guy. And thought here was someone who I think can be a great politician; great Member of Parliament.
“Because he had an openness, a non-defensiveness, a sense of humility about who he was and his place in the world. Whilst also having that strength to kind of keep going and keep doing this sort of work. And that is an incredibly rare combination of characteristics.”Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: “Efeso was a good man, always friendly and kind, and a true champion and advocate for his Samoan and South Auckland communities.”
And the Pacific caucus of the Labour Party, his political home for some years said, “Many of us worked or studied with Efeso over several decades. Efeso was a passionate advocate for our community and a role model for the people of South Auckland and New Zealand’s Pacific community.
Deputy party leader Carmel Sepuloni said: “We are thinking of Efeso’s wife and his two beautiful daughters, his wider whānau, friends and community. The loss of this courageous man will be felt by so many.”
Fa’anānā Efeso Collins, 49, is survived by his wife Fia, daughters Kaperiela and Asalemo, mother Lotomau and wider family.
Six days ago, he spoke of his deceased father Tauiliili Sio and brother Thomas “both watching from Heaven” as he gave his Maiden speech.
Go, now in peace.
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