[a][4] They form the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country, after European descendants, indigenous Māori, and Asian New Zealanders.

[7] In the 1970s, governments (both Labour and National), migration officials, and special police squads targeted Pasifika illegal overstayers.

The cheap housing found in Ponsonby and other inner city Auckland suburbs were attractive to Pākehā young professionals, especially socially liberal families searching for a multicultural and urban lifestyle.

[7] As these houses were purchased, the available rental stock plummeted, and Pasifika families who tended to rent more began to relocate to suburbs further out from the city centre.

[17] In 1993, Samoan-born Taito Phillip Field became the first Pasifika member of parliament (MP), when he won the Otara electorate seat for Labour.

[18] Field was joined in 1996 by Samoan politicians Mark Gosche and Arthur Anae (the first Pasifika MP from the National Party), and by Winnie Laban in 1999.

The 2020 New Zealand general election saw the largest cohort of Pasifika MPs entering parliament: Terisa Ngobi, Barbara Edmonds, Tangi Utikere, Neru Leavasa for the Labour Party, and the first Pasifika MP from the Green Party, Teanau Tuiono.

[23][24] Collins entered parliament in 2023 as a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, serving until his death in February 2024.