Auckland mayoral candidate Fa’anana Efeso Collins will deliver one of his first key campaign speeches at the Ngati Ōtara Multisports Complex in Ōtara tonight - on his vision for creating a safer, more inclusive city.

Collins says he’s aware of how anxious Aucklanders are feeling right now: “We feel less safe when we go out at night and every morning we are bombarded with scary headlines on our social media feeds about drive-bys and gang violence.”

His speech will include a three-part plan for how to create safer communities for the whole city.

“To go hard on crime, we have to go hard on poverty - which is no easy task,” Collins says.

“But as mayor, I can put in place measures to make it easier for our communities to keep our young people out of gangs and away from a life of crime. My experiences as a youth worker, gangs researcher, and Auckland councillor have given me a breadth of knowledge on what will make our communities safer.”

Collins will expand on his three-part plan at the brand new Ngati Ōtara Multisports Complex in Ōtara, home to the Ōtara Scorpion Rugby League club, which he says is an example of how locally-led solutions can be the answer to the challenges communities like Ōtara face.

“As Ōtara Scorpion’s club chairman Willie Maea knows first hand as a community mental health champion and local youth worker – it can be through sports clubs like this, that we can start that process of re-engaging our youth.

“Council already spends thousands every year on employment programmes and events aimed at helping our youth into jobs. But with my grassroots knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, we can sharpen our resources as a city to make sure we are creating meaningful pathways for our young people from school, to education, to jobs, and most importantly into lives of purpose.

“As mayor, I can get the collaborative conversations going that we need to have, to get our communities working together. That’s why my vision for a safer city starts with seeing Auckland beyond the CBD, and that means getting our local businesses to the table.

“We can make our city’s regional hubs places to empower and promote the entrepreneurial spirit that makes Auckland so great, and turn around our dying and derelict town centres that have become sitting ducks for petty crime.”

Efeso Collins’ will deliver his speech from 6.30pm at Ngati Ōtara Multisports Complex on 100 Ōtara Rd, Ōtara (Scorpions Ōtara Rugby League Club) and the event will also be streamed live on his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/EfesoForMayor

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