Late NZ Green Party MP Efeso Collins with wife Fia and children
By Staff Writer
Former Prime Minister and current opposition leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has joined the flow of tributes to the passing of the New Zealand Green Party MP Efeso Collins last Wednesday.
The late MP died while taking part in a charity event in Auckland to help Pacific children.
Tuilaepa acknowledge the blow of his passing “…to his young family and the political landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand and equally so to the people of Samoa, the land of his ancestors.”
“As a leader I always stay on top of the progress of Samoans involved in politics in New Zealand, Australia and the United States and I have been watching a young Efeso as he strode into New Zealand politics, even when he started getting involved with student politics in Auckland,” Tuilaepa offered in condolences to Mrs Fia Collins and children.
“We were all expecting big things from him especially as he worked closely with the less fortunate in South Auckland and the Pacific Islands, a role he was involved with when he was called by our Lord.
“As St Paul said in Corinthians 13:13 – “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Manuia lau malaga Fa’anānā Efeso Collins.”
The NZ Green Party co-leader James Shaw led the tributes for his fellow MP, “fighting back tears” while saying Collins will be missed by the party and New Zealand.
“Aotearoa needed him, we needed him, Efeso Collins was a good man,” Shaw eulogised
“He conducted himself quietly and gracefully….and full of empathy.”
Collins died at the age of 49 and was described in one of the tributes as a Samoan boy who journeyed from Otara into the NZ Parliament.