Aotearoa New Zealand has lost a brilliant Son.
The Political Left has lost one of its best promises.
New Zealand Pacifica has lost one of its greatest leaders.
South Auckland has lost its most staunchly positive and authentic champion.
Dear Fia and his treasured daughters have lost a Husband, a Father and a soul mate.
I have lost one of my oldest friends.
I knew Fes from our activism at University and over those 30 years we have remained good friends and would talk for hours about politics, strategy and how to change New Zealand.
He was one of the best human beings i have ever had the privilege of knowing.
His grace, his intelligence, his wonderful warm sense of humour, he was unique and his courage to constantly stand for the poor and the most vulnerable marked him as a leader of true vision.
You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people, and Fes loved the people.
We should weep and mourn and cry.
His sudden passing is a true grief, not just in who he was and what he represented, but all the things he could have done to make this country the true egalitarian state we want it to be.
It is the words of his Maiden Speech that now haunt us, inspire us and make us gasp at their truth, their beauty and the compassionate dignity of the man who spoke them.
I haven’t come to Parliament to learn – learning happens as a matter of course through reflection. I’ve come to this House to help. Helping is a deliberate act. I’m here to help this Government govern for all of New Zealand, and I’m here to open the door, enabling our communities to connect better with this House. During the election campaign, I spoke to people frustrated about their lot in life, scared for their and their children’s futures, and feeling their dreams were slipping away. The people I spoke to expect the Government to do more and move faster. And I know that there are some in this House who believe Government is not the answer to these challenges and that less Government is better. But here’s the thing: the Government cannot be a bystander to people suffering confusion and disenfranchisement. New Zealand must close the divide between those who have and those who have not, because the reality for my community is that those who have more money often wield more power, more health, more housing, more justice, more access, more canopy cover, more lobbyists with swipe cards, and more time. And the opposite is true for those who have fewer resources.
I haven’t come to Parliament to learn – learning happens as a matter of course through reflection. I’ve come to this House to help. Helping is a deliberate act. I’m here to help this Government govern for all of New Zealand, and I’m here to open the door, enabling our communities to connect better with this House. During the election campaign, I spoke to people frustrated about their lot in life, scared for their and their children’s futures, and feeling their dreams were slipping away. The people I spoke to expect the Government to do more and move faster. And I know that there are some in this House who believe Government is not the answer to these challenges and that less Government is better. But here’s the thing: the Government cannot be a bystander to people suffering confusion and disenfranchisement. New Zealand must close the divide between those who have and those who have not, because the reality for my community is that those who have more money often wield more power, more health, more housing, more justice, more access, more canopy cover, more lobbyists with swipe cards, and more time. And the opposite is true for those who have fewer resources.
The American civil rights activist James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”. We commit to working across this House as a nation and with each other irrespective of our postcode, income bracket, skin colour, or level of qualification attained. But, in order for that work, we 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, expect more, are impatient for change, and have this uncanny ability to stretch us further.
These magical insights and values make us stop because of their power, because of their revelation, because of their naked humble righteousness.
We have a solemn obligation as Kiwis to continue his work and support his beloved family.
We are a far, far, far better world for his being here and we are a far, far, far less beautiful world for his passing.
At a charity event no less you wonderful person.
The final words can only be his:
There’s a saying in Samoan, “E le tu fa’amauga se tagata” – no one stands alone, no one succeeds alone – and, for me, no one suffers alone.
First published on Waatea News.
Rod Donald and now Faʻanānā Efeso Collins..!