Growing a movement

Efeso Collins wants to be Auckland's first Pasifika mayor. So how is he planning to win votes?

- RUSSELL BROWN

Efeso Collins: "It's important to me for people to see that I'm human, that anyone who seeks these public roles is human."

It's a sunny Easter Saturday in Auckland and Shanan Halbert, the Labour MP for Northcote, has organized a cafe meeting for his old friend Efeso Collins. At the age of 47, Collins wants to be the first Pasifika mayor of Auckland and has already begun traversing the city, even though the postal vote doesn't open until September.

Today, he's a little late coming from his stop at the farmers' market at Hobsonville Point, but he eventually arrives in shorts and sandals, along with his wife, Fia, and their two-year-old daughter, Asalemo. He recognizes me and greets me with an embrace, although we've met only once before.

That was in 2016, at a local body candidates forum at a Ponsonby bar. The candidates ranged from first-timers to old hands, but two stood out. One was 23-year-old mayoral aspirant Chloe Swarbrick, who seemed to have a coherent, thoughtful answer for every question. The other was Collins, who was standing for Auckland Council in the Manukau ward. He was compelling as much for the way he spoke as for what he said. His tone and his bearing seemed to demand attention.

Collins' parents Tauiliili Sio and Lotomau Collins

Collins, who is of Samoan-Tokelauan heritage, was famously the first Polynesian to be elected president of the Auckland University Students' Association. He worked as a youth education mentor and lecturer, but in 2013 steered back into politics and was elected to the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board on a Labour ticket, immediately becoming its chair.