Hipkins ChrisRt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr. Speaker. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Collins family and all those who will be acutely feeling still now the loss of Fa'anānā Efeso Collins. There are no words that we can express in this House to adequately describe the aroha that we send your way or that would in any way compensate for the sense of loss that you will still be feeling.I want to acknowledge my colleagues in the Green Party for the loss that you have sustained and I want to acknowledge my Labour whānau particularly those in Auckland who worked so closely with Efeso over such a long period of time. As my colleague Teanau from the Greens described on the day after Efeso passed away he was a son of the Labour Party who wandered over to the Green Party and we all feel his loss very much. But my good friend Carmel Sepuloni also noted that he had simply moved to the whare next door. So we grieve with you and we feel this loss as well.I wanted to use one or two quotes from Efeso Collins himself in remembering him. In particular just before Christmas he was asked by Radio New Zealand what he wanted for Christmas. He said My hope for the community is that we as a nation settle on some basics that every child will wake up and know that they've got three meals [a] day [and] that they've got somewhere safe and warm to sleep at night". I know that that is what he dedicated his life to. That very much speaks to the values of Efeso the values of the Green Party and the values that we all share. I know that those are values that he lived his life by. I also noted that in his maiden statement he made the statement "No one stands alone no one succeeds alone". For him it was important that no one should suffer alone. Again this was a sentiment that he not only expressed in this House but that he gave life to in his actions.But I don't believe that we should only be reflecting on the loss that we have sustained and the potential that we may have seen in this House because Efeso Collins in his life before entering Parliament had already done so much in the community and supported so many people. His life was a full one. He was a community builder. Samoan born Ōtara raised. Three terms on the Auckland Council. A passionate advocate for his communities. Before politics a lecturer in teacher education. He consulted in leadership in cross-cultural communication. He published research on youth gangs and he developed youth-mentoring programmes. He was the first in his family to attend and graduate from university and he had a Master's degree in education.My first interaction with Efeso Collins was as a students association representative back in 1999 when he was the newly elected president of the Auckland University Students' Association. I was attending one of my early meetings in student politics. At that time there was some conflict involved. Some great future parliamentary heavyweights were knocking about student politics at the time including Peeni Henare Erica Stanford me and of course Efeso Collins. It was a tense meeting but I saw firsthand then what I saw many other times: Efeso's belief in being the last to speak. Through a very tense conversation where lots of people were criticising each other he sat and listened and at the end of the meeting he was the last to speak and he broke all of the tension and brought everybody together. That was his style. It was what he believed in. He believed that you could have a disagreement and that you could still bring people together at the end of it and he exemplified that in all of his actions.We will miss Efeso Collins but in our grieving for him we also want to always remember the enormous contribution that he made throughout his life."