Green Party MP and former Auckland City mayoral candidate and councillor Fa’anānā Efeso Collins has died suddenly in Auckland this morning.
Fa’anānā was taking part in the ChildFund Water Run to raise funds to support local communities in the Pacific when he collapsed just after 9am this morning.
It’s reported that emergency services immediately responded with CPR and defibrillators to treat the MP and continued working with him for an hour.
Collins was elected to the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board in 2013 and became its chairperson.
Three years later he was elected to the Auckland Council as one of two councillors for the Manukau ward.
At the 2022 local body elections, he stood for the mayoralty as an independent with the backing of the Labour Party and outgoing Mayor Phil Goff, where he was the runner-up to Wayne Brown.
He was elected to Parliament as a Green Party MP at the 2023 election.
Fa’anānā, 49, is survived by his wife Fia and two daughters.
