He joked, he sang, he spoke about his big ideas and he answered his critics.
And then Fa’anānā Efeso Collins - the dad, husband and Green Party MP seen as a Pasifika leader who brought hope to disadvantaged communities and who died suddenly, aged 49, during a charity event in downtown Auckland yesterday morning - told the 150 guests at his old school, Ōtara’s Tangaroa College, why he wanted to be mayor of a city still picking itself up a year after a last, long Covid-19 lockdown.
“I want a city that dreams again. I want us to imagine what’s possible and make it happen”, the Samoan/Tokelauan Kiwi and father of two young daughters said at the September 2022 campaign opener.
“This is a launch not just for me to win office. It’s for the desire for a new city.”
He spoke of tackling poverty and creating opportunity, a “laser focus on council spending”, a “climate-conscious city” where we are “the good kaitiaki [guardians] of the Earth” - and fares-free public transport, the signature policy he’d previously promised, which wouldn’t mean a rates rise.
But come October 2022, the voters would overwhelmingly pick someone else, with septuagenarian Wayne Brown’s blunt “Fix Auckland” message earning him 181,000 votes to Collins’ 124,000.
Collins would find another way to serve - a year later he’d be among 12 Green Party list MPs (and three electorate MPs) off to Parliament after the party won 11.6 per cent of the vote at last October’s general election.
“My intention is to bring the hood”, he said of his new job, promising to “continue to be me”.
“I’ll always speak my voice, I’ll always challenge people. I also want to bring a level of swagger that means people can look into politics and see themselves... there is major talent here in South Auckland and my job is to facilitate them coming into this space.”
Yesterday morning, Collins - who started his career in public service as the first Polynesian-ethnicity Auckland University Students’ Association president in the late 1990s before later being elected and chairing the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board - was being remembered with love and admiration.
Despite immediate medical treatment by event staff and then St John Ambulance officers when he collapsed after the ChildFund Water Run event, Collins died at the scene, his friend and ChildFund chief executive Josie Pagani said.
“We are deeply shocked and thinking only of his family at this time,” Pagani said.
Only a couple of hours later, outgoing Greens co-leader James Shaw choked back tears, saying they were “absolutely devastated” at the loss of their friend and colleague.
Shaw said his contribution as a community leader, particularly around South Auckland, and as a Pasifika mayor candidate for the country’s largest city, gave many hope, especially Māori and Pasifika - and others would follow the path Collins had made.
“His love for his family essentially extended to all families... he truly was the most beautiful man with an orientation of love,” Shaw said.
Collins was a longtime Labour Party member before switching to the Greens and leader Chris Hipkins described him as someone who “may not have had a tribal political allegiance, but he was very clear about his values”.
“I want to acknowledge the tragedy of his passing just as he arrived here at Parliament. He was a passionate advocate for Pasifika New Zealanders.”
The tributes, too, came from his political rivals, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
“Efeso was a good man, always friendly and kind and a true champion and advocate for his Samoan and South Auckland communities. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go to his family, his community and colleagues,” Luxon said.
Act leader David Seymour called Collins a “passionate, articulate and charismatic” advocate for South Auckland, who was personally liked on both sides of politics.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said while they were rivals on the campaign trail, he and Collins “became quite good friends”.
“He was a good man... a bold Pacific leader and champion for South Auckland, as well as a fierce and respectful opponent on the campaign trail for the Auckland mayoralty,” Brown said.
Fellow former mayoral rival Leo Molloy, who was at yesterday morning’s ChildFund Water Run where Collins collapsed, said Collins was without peer as a person and an orator.
“A beautiful, kind man gone far too soon,” Molloy said.
Collins believed you got somewhere when you sat down and talked to people - and he decided to sit next to fellow councillor Desley Simpson, a National Party bigwig, so he could “work with her and learn from her”, he said in 2022.
“A man known for giving so much to his community, to Auckland and most recently to New Zealand, has died participating in an event to raise money for his fellow Pacific people today,” Simpson said yesterday.
“Words cannot express how I’m feeling, but I am sending my heartfelt and utmost condolences to Fia and his daughters Kaperiela and Asalemo.”
Collins talked about Fia and their daughters “at every opportunity”, councillor Richard Hills wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“He loved them so much.”
His former council colleague was a “passionate advocate for the advancement of social justice”, Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor Daniel Newman said.
The loss of his “dear friend” had cost the country someone with the potential for greatness, Auckland councillor Mike Lee said, while Wellington councillor Rebecca Matthews described Collins’ potential as obvious from his university days.
“Even then, the charisma and deep integrity was there in the man he would become.”
Community leader Dave Letele, who stayed at Collins’ side following his collapse, said his friend’s work was “only just beginning”.
“Now... being in Parliament, the impact that he was meant to have for us [Pasifika] was going to be huge. It’s a huge loss for his family, for his wife and New Zealand as a whole - especially our people.”
When he decided to run for Auckland Mayor, Collins himself spoke about the influence of his parents - the bus and taxi driver dad and factory worker and cleaner mum who encouraged him to study hard - and how a conversation with a bus driver reminded him of his late dad and had him in tears.
“He put his hand on my head. He said: ‘Go for it, son. You talk for our people’.”
“Dad’s not here to do that for me... for us, it’s deeply emotional because so much of our lives has been invested in this and I don’t think that we’ve got the benefit that should have come by now.”
Collins was not without his critics during his time in public service.
When he ran for mayor, there were claims his fares-free plan was uncosted and wouldn’t work and that the wannabe mayor would double rates.
Others criticised the Ōtāhuhu-based councillor’s council attendance - the lowest among councillors in the previous term - and called him inexperienced.
Talking about his experience, Collins - who had an MA in education - said he’d known his way around a balance sheet since his students’ association presidency and he was also chairman of Ōtara Health, along with his years of political experience.
“We had a larger population in that one local board [Ōtara-Papatoetoe] than in the Far North, where Wayne Brown used to be mayor.”
He also voted against the Auckland regional fuel tax - now headed for the dustbin in June under the new Government.
Collins, whose father was a Pentecostal Church minister and who himself converted to Catholicism when he married, was also called anti-abortion and homophobic.
He spoke against marriage equality 12 years ago but later apologised. On abortion, he said in 2022, he didn’t want to “get in the way of women making deeply personal decisions for themselves”.
“My theology has been challenged and I have responded. I have changed.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
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