Emergency responders gave him CPR and defibrillation. They treated Collins for more than an hour before an event organiser confirmed to the Herald he was dead.
He was elected to Parliament for the Green Party at the last election, coming after serving six years on the Auckland Council, and three years before that on the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board. Collins also ran for the mayoralty in 2022.
Less than a week ago, Collins stood and addressed the House of Representatives for the first time, beginning his speech in te reo Māori and then Samoan.
Green Party MP Efeso Collins delivers his maiden speech in the House of Representatives on February 15, 2024, less than a week before he died at the ChildFund Water Run in central Auckland. Photo / Parliament TV
In English, he began: “Mr Speaker, it is an indescribable feeling to stand up and address this House.
“I am well aware of the giants whose shoulders I stand on. The courage, foresight, and entrepreneurial spirit and hope of our ancestors who journeyed thousands of years ago through the vast waters of Te Moana nui a Kiwa [the Pacific Ocean] brings me here today.”
He spoke about his parents and their migration to New Zealand in the early 1960s, reminiscing about his father’s first job as a taxi driver and his mother’s as a factory worker.
He mentioned the negative impact some of his teachers had on him when they told him to stop speaking Samoan, his pride for his community, and his desire to see action on climate change in the interests of people in the Pacific.
Collins, 49, died at the ChildFund Water Run outside Britomart Train Station in central Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Collins also encouraged the House to better represent the community it is elected by.
“This House needs to do more to engage all of our people so that they can see this House is not just relevant, but an essential part of their lives,” he said.
“I haven’t come to Parliament to learn. I’ve come to this House to help. I’m here to help this Government govern for all of New Zealand.
Emergency responders gave Collins CPR and defibrillation. They treated him for more than an hour before an event organiser confirmed he was dead. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“During the election campaign, I spoke to people frustrated about their lot in life, scared for their and their children’s futures, feeling their futures were slipping away.
“We [politicians] must come with humility, the desire to listen, and dare I say it, maybe speaking last.
“If I was to inspire anyone by getting to this House and my work over the next three years, I hope that it’s the ‘square pegs’, the misfits, the forgotten, the unloved, the invisible - it’s the dreamers who want more, who expect more, who are impatient for change and have this uncanny ability to stretch us further.”
