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September 13, 2023
Newly-Green Collins follows own line
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On September 13, 2023
Download AudioGreen Party Panmure-Otahuhu candidate Fa’ananānā Efeso Collins says he’s prepared to buck the party line if it means standing up for his community.
Mr Collins switched to the Greens after serving as a Labour-aligned councillor on the Auckland Council and seeking the party’s endorsement in his unsuccessful run for the mayoralty.
He says he likes their climate justice and anti-poverty policies, and he also didn’t appreciate the pressure put on him as a councillor for opposing the regional fuel tax.
“I was summoned to a meeting and the minister they sent was the lovely Willie Jackson – Willie understands me so we had a really good chat to smooth things out, but it was those kinds of things that made me realise if we are going to stand for our communities we’ve got to put our communities first, and if that meant I voted against the party line, in my world view that’s okay as long as the conversations that led up to that were robust,” Mr Collins says.
On current polling Efeso Collins is likely to enter parliament at 11 on the Green Party list.
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