Fa'anānā Efeso Collins (born ) is a New Zealand politician serving as a Green Party Member of Parliament since 2023. He was previously a Manukau ward councillor on Auckland Council from 2016 to 2022, when he stood down and unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Auckland mayoral election. He is of Samoan and Tokelauan descent.
Early life and family
Collins was born and raised in the Auckland suburb of Ōtara. He was the youngest of six children to bus driver and Pentecostal Church pastor Tauiliili Sio Collins and factory worker and cleaner Lotomau Collins. His parents immigrated to New Zealand from Samoa in the 1960s. Collins carries the Samoan matai title of Fa’anana from the village of Satufia, Satupaitea, Savai'i. He was brought up a Pentecostal Christian.
He attended East Tamaki Primary School and Ferguson Intermediate School. He briefly attended Auckland Grammar School before moving to Tangaroa College. He later studied education at the University of Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997 followed by a Master of Arts in 1999. His MA dissertation included discussion of 'brown flight' . He has subsequently contributed to four published works and taught at Auckland University. He was elected Auckland University Students' Association president in 1999 and was the first Polynesian in that role. As president he represented students on the Auckland University Council. His subsequent career included positions in the education sector and the public service.
Collins married Fia, a diversity and inclusion specialist, in 2011. The couple share two daughters.
Auckland Council
Papatoetoe Local Board, 2013–2016
At the 2013 Auckland elections, Collins was elected to the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board and became its chairperson. An original campaign song was created by two former members of a church youth group Collins had previously led.
He contested the Labour party candidate selection for the Manukau East seat before the 2014 general election, but ultimately Jenny Salesa was selected and won the seat.
Auckland Council, 2016–2022
At the 2016 Auckland elections, Collins was elected to the Auckland Council, replacing Arthur Anae, who did not seek re-election. He was sworn in as a councillor for the Manukau ward on 1 November 2016. In 2019 he was re-elected as the highest polling candidate in the Manakau Ward.
On 27 August 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, Collins called for the New Zealand Government to grant an amnesty to people who had overstayed their visas in order to encourage members of the Pasifika community to come forward for COVID-19 tests. The then Health Minister Chris Hipkins had earlier reassured the Pasifika community that the Government would not use any information collected during testing for immigration purposes.
On 25 July 2021, Collins disclosed that he and his family had received a death threat on 19 June in response to his comments criticising TVNZ's Police Ten 7 programme for its negative depiction of the Māori and Pasifika communities. Despite the threats to him and his family, and the 'deep sense of guilt' he felt for exposing his family to the threat, Collins and his wife resolved to continue his involvement in politics and he later said this was the moment he decided to run for the Auckland mayoralty.
2022 Auckland mayoral election
In January 2022 Collins announced he would be running for Mayor of Auckland as an independent candidate in the 2022 election. On 28 February 2022, the Labour Party announced that it would be endorsing Collins as its preferred candidate. On 15 March 2022, the Green Party announced its endorsement of Collins, a first for the party. He also received the endorsement of incumbent mayor Phil Goff. Collins' policies included fare-free public transport as "the first and best way" to address the city’s emissions.
In the October Auckland mayoral election, Collins received 124,802 votes. The electorate gave 144,6019 votes to Wayne Brown, who was appointed mayor. Collins attributed his election defeat to alleged "unconscious bias" among voters and the postal ballot system which disadvantaged lower-income voters.
Member of Parliament
Following the 2022 Auckland mayoral election, Collins announced that he would retire from local body politics. When asked on election night, he stated he had no intention to run for Parliament at the 2023 New Zealand general election but in November it was reported that he was considering opportunities with the Labour Party and the Green Party.