RIP Efeso Collins

Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, February 21st, 2024 - 17 comments
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Very sad news today with news of Fa’anana Efeso Collins’ untimely death.

He was a unique character, larger than life, one of the best orators I have ever seen and dedicated to his family and community.

Rather than attempt to describe him his maiden speech shows how extraordinary he was and what a loss he is.

17 comments on “RIP Efeso Collins ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    21 February 2024 at 5:05 pm

    "It's hard to be poor, it's expensive to be poor, and moreover, public discourse is making it socially unacceptable to be poor. Whether it's bashing on beneficiaries, dragging our feet towards a living wage, throwing shade on school breakfast programmes, or restricting people's ability to collectively bargain for fairer working conditions, we must do better to lift aspirations and the lived realities of all our people. To that end, I want to say to this House with complete surety that the neoliberal experiment of the 1980s has failed. The economics of creating unemployment to manage inflation is farcical when domestic inflation in New Zealand has been driven by big corporates making excessive profits. It's time to draw a line in the sand, and alongside my colleagues here in Te Pāti Kākāriki, we've come as the pallbearers of neoliberalism, to bury these shallow, insufferable ideas once and for all. And this, sir, is our act of love."

  2. Nzsage 2
    21 February 2024 at 6:10 pm

    Tragic.

    Life seems so unfair. Why do these things happen to the good people.

    RIP Efeso.

  3. weka 3
    21 February 2024 at 7:49 pm

    big loss for the country too. Been thinking about Rod Donald today.

    • Muttonbird 3.1
      21 February 2024 at 8:44 pm

      Hi weka. Why would you say, "too"? MS in the post and the first comment did not mention the loss to the left, just loss, but you felt the need to differentiate between the loss to to the people of NZ and the loss to the left for some reason.

      It seems like a RW reaction to say, "big loss for the country too".

      Why did you do this?

  4. Ad 4
    21 February 2024 at 8:29 pm

    Damn miserable day.

    I loved Efeso. What an Auckland Council he would have led.

    Doubles down the loss of Robertson from Parliament.

  5. Patricia Bremner 5
    21 February 2024 at 8:51 pm

    I am in grief. Those special politicians, and a cousin lost his youngest son suddenly in Aus today. All round a sad sad day.

  6. Muttonbird 6
    21 February 2024 at 8:55 pm

    This is tragic and a loss to the country. There are too few people willing to devote themselves and their families for the betterment of the disenfranchised.

    My hope is that Efeso Collins becomes a touchstone for all those inside and outside of parliament who want a fairer New Zealand, and that those people redouble their efforts in his memory.

    Let’s go, Efeso.

  7. roblogic 7
    21 February 2024 at 8:58 pm

    So many lovely tributes today. Simon Wilson wrote from the heart:

    Simon Wilson: Green MP Efeso Collins, a politician of heart and soul, dead at 49 – NZ Herald

    We knew Collins for his commitment to Samoan and Polynesian communities, to South Auckland, to his church. But to my mind, the values on which he stood most firmly, the wellspring to everything in him and the thing that clearly gave him the greatest pleasure, was children.

    We could do with a few more politicians who put children first, if you ask me. We could do with a few more who find happiness in doing it and are not afraid to show it. […]

    He found politics hard. The byzantine rules of the council and city administration didn’t sit comfortably with him, but nor was he the kind of person who overthrows rules. He was a member of the Labour Party but struggled sometimes to find a place in its machine.

    But he was in politics for a reason and he pushed on. His oratory was inspirational. Learned, witty, captivating. There were times when it felt like a blessing to listen. […]

    In politics, it’s often easy to praise and reward the politicking. But Collins was useless at all that. It’s harder to grasp the value of a political programme, but Collins turned out to be pretty good at it. […]

    At a campaign function at Tangaroa College in Ōtara, where he’d once been a student, he received a reception both solemn and joyful. But with the election slipping away from him, it was tempting to wonder, is this a backwater?

    Fes wanted us to know it wasn’t. It was the heart and soul of his world. And that his world deserved to be part of the heart and soul of the city.

  8. Kat 8
    21 February 2024 at 9:55 pm

    Efeso will be long remembered for the political bright light and sweet dreams that he inspired long after the darkness ebbs from the nightmares of the current coalition of darkness……

  9. Tiger Mountain 9
    22 February 2024 at 8:47 am

    Fa’anānā Efeso Collins being in Parliament this term was one very good reason for not switching off the place while the Natzo, Act & NZ1 vandals go about their work.

    As many anecdotes, tributes and his political trajectory illustrate, a great loss for Aotearoa NZ.

  10. Mike the Lefty 10
    22 February 2024 at 5:06 pm

    Efeso Collins was one of the biggest factors that brought me back to supporting the Greens. I wanted to be part of his vision for New Zealand.

  11. Vivie 11
    22 February 2024 at 7:18 pm

    Efeso Collins displayed compassion, commitment and sincerity. A very sad time for NZ.

  12. Anker 12
    24 February 2024 at 12:04 pm

    Unbelievably sad.