Brownlee Gerry; Davidson MaramaACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DEATH OF MEMBERFa'anānā Efeso CollinsSPEAKER: Members in accordance with a determination of the Business Committee we come now to the acknowledgment of the death of Fa'anānā Efeso Collins. I call on the Green Party of Aotearoa to open that debate.Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koe e te Māngai. Tēnā tatou e te Whare. I'd like to begin my speech with acknowledgments to the whānau; to Vasa Fia Collins and her sister Jodie who I've spent some time with over this last weekend and all of your family and friends who are here; to māmā Lotomau Collins and Efeso's sisters you're also here including from Australia; and your wider Collins whānau and community. I also would like to pay acknowledgments to the Ō-Rākau iwi who are here today to have their settlement heard and another reminder of how important it was for Fa'anānā Efeso Collins to honour Te Tiriti. It matters to this House greatly that you are all here as this Parliament stands with humility to attempt to recognise your husband your son your brother your deeply beloved family member and friend your inspiration.I want to start my tribute with the words of Vasa Fia Collins Fa'anānā Efeso Collins wife. It was at the enormous public funeral service held in Manukau that Fia staunchly and correctly proclaimed that Efeso was indeed bigger than any political party or movement. The Green Party knew and loved that about him the most. He was focused on being a pallbearer of neoliberalism. That vision of an Aotearoa where everyone including the square pegs the misfits the forgotten the unloved and the invisible were cared for; an Aotearoa where our living systems our natural wildlife our whakapapa and generations of mokupuna are cared for—not just today but for the many many generations to come. That vision of an Aotearoa—his kaupapa—is always bigger than any political party. He had a job to do and he deserved the platform to do it and the Green Party are deeply honoured in a way that we will never truly be able to fully give words to give justice to—that it was the Green Party who were able to give him that platform because it was about the kaupapa. Ngā mihi nui ki a koe e te tungāne ki a koe Fa'nānā Efeso Collins.[I'd like to acknowledge you dear brother Fa'nānā Efeso Collins.]The baton as Fia also rightly proclaimed at his funeral service is now firmly in all of our hands. Many of his attributes were spoken about at the public funeral service and over the weeks after Efeso died. It was widely recognised that he had a particular passion commitment and aroha for upholding rangatahi for understanding the strength that we all can learn when we are working with them understanding what they bring to the work and to actually support rangatahi especially the misfits especially the square pegs especially those forgotten and those unloved. That baton is one that we all here in the House should be holding with pride and determination and I thank Fa'anānā for the opportunity to highlight his kaupapa once again here today.It was a big deal for Fia and for Efeso's family to share him with us and with the world. They were never under any pretence that that was what happens when you are married to or when you have given birth to a leader and someone who will serve—and literally to his dying day.Today I wanted to acknowledge also my Green MP colleagues many of whom had the privilege of just getting to know Efeso over the recent years and over the recent months especially since he was elected and came in with a whole lot of other new MPs. Teanau and I have talked about the privilege of having known Efeso for decades right back to when we were at Auckland University together but everyone in this House needs to know that he had an impact on his newer friends as well. Our friends and my colleagues here who only got to know him more recently are still devastated to this day and feeling rightly ripped off by what was to come from him by what was on promise. I had the incredible opportunity to offer my thoughts on his contribution at the big public service in Manukau. There are not words that I can express for how grateful I am for being given that honour that day.Among our caucus it became quickly widely known that Efeso was going to be one of the leaders of our tall caucus and Fia spoke to that a little bit in her speech where she talked about him constantly trying to humble himself constantly trying to go to the back constantly trying to not be in the front—that was his constant humility at all times. And yet he was the biggest smiling warmest cuddly and most welcoming giant we could have imagined. The beauty of the girls standing with Fia that day at the funeral service is something that we will never ever forget. And Fia that day—I know you talked about being an ordinary woman who married an extraordinary man but your leadership your grace your humility and your strength have been nothing but extraordinary. I haven't had a chance to speak publicly to your speech and to that day since then and I am taking this moment to do that. In these moments I really also wanted to thank the broader members and the wider members of this entire House. We received love and warm wishes and your speeches in the aftermath—the very immediate and quite painful and shocking aftermath that very day that he died. The ongoing love and support that we have received from across the House is something that I wish we saw more of and is something that Efeso inspired us to do more of: to work together and build genuine bridges.We also saw incredible generosity. I want to thank you directly Mr Speaker the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee. Your staff: Rafael David and I think Tim Dwayne Roz and the travel team—they all went very quickly above and beyond what any staff should ever have to do and should ever have to contend with. They were dealing with an entire Green caucus in deep shock and trauma and did what they could to move mountains. Mr Speaker I know you are very proud of your team across the House and we cannot thank you enough for what you also had to do.That humanity across the House is probably what I did want to focus on in my contribution today. We saw shared grief because he had an impact on all of us not just the Green Party not just his Labour colleagues who he has worked with for years and years. We shared moments of actually just remembering who we are as humans that the loss for his girls for his wife for his māmā for his sisters and for his community was a human loss that we could understand. I wish it didn't have to take such tragic circumstances for us to be able to share human moments together. I think there's far more commonality to those humanity moments and I think Efeso was a shining example for us to come together on those very moments.I have just seen that my time is running out here today. There are a few more acknowledgments that I wanted to talk about. I do want to acknowledge that sadly and tragically this is not the first time the Green Party have lost a beloved MP in service. That day and this day I really have been thinking about Rod Donald and his entire family especially his girls and Holly who reached out to us during that time. This is not something that any political party should want to go through but it's pretty heinous and we are going through it again. I want to thank everyone for your love and I appreciate the time that has been given today for all of our tributes. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora mai tatou katoa.Hon Dr Shane Reti: Mr Speaker?SPEAKER: The Hon Shane Jones—Hon Dr Shane Reti: Not quite.SPEAKER: Oh sorry! The Hon Dr Shane Reti.