A Hero departs

Keith Locke MP 

Keith Locke…Hero

After twelve years Keith Locke a list member of Parliament for the Greens is stepping down. He gave his valedictory speech last Wednesday.

Heroes come in various shapes and sizes, some are well known while others are not known at all. Some perform heroic deeds that make the headlines while others are actually very gentle and rarely noted.

Keith Locke is a mixture of both and his heroics have stretched across a long period of time. Some of these very brave acts were performed in the public eye at many protests such as the Springboks tour and anti war protests. While others were much more sedate protests against the might of multi-national corporations, urgency use in Parliament by sneaky ruling parties and attacks on civil liberties.

Keith Locke has stood tall even while the SIS was collecting information for one of their many secret files on those considered dangerous citizens. The question was and still is dangerous to whom. Certainly not everyday New Zealanders… that’s for sure.  

His has been a consistent voice for peace and human rights, for tolerance, honesty and justice. Not for him the hypocrisy of pretending our troops are in Afghanistan as mentors when we all know that John Key sent our troops in to the front line to buy his entry into a US free trade deal using them as bait.

Compared to John Key Keith Locke stands heads and shoulders higher in the graph of honesty, trustworthiness and political achievement. Keith comes from a family embedded in the desire to protect those most in need. His parents set high standards and has maintained those standards. I wish him well.