Hey Dad

Dad,

Well its father’s day again, and I got to thinking about just what sort of dad you have been over the years. Nearly half a century has passed since the day I came kicking and screaming into your world - but what a world you gave me.

I can’t be with you today so I thought I would pen this note and send it to you to say thanks and to reflect on the influence you have had on me and how that influence is playing out in our political landscape.

You were never an ordinary dad. You were the dad many other kids wished they had – We always had fun at our house – it seemed to be the centre of the neighbourhood and that was due just as much to mum as well.

You see, good men always find good women and you found mum. She tempers your bravado and she is unfailingly in your corner.

So today, I sit here in an inner city apartment surrounded by concrete walls, a cityscape they call it, but I can close my eyes anytime and that cityscape is replaced by a myriad of different milieu from our rich lives.

We come from nomads and we are happy travellers. But you more than just took us places - we became part of the places we visited with you. We never left New Zealand’s shores but in the south there are few corners we haven’t been.

You taught us resilience and survival. You gave us a thirst for knowledge and even now I need new information every day to feel alive.

But most importantly you also gave us the courage to say what we think, the ability to stand up for others and the strength to face those who do wrong.

So in the last few months I have watched one of the men you most admired, Winston Peters, disintegrate under withering blows from me and many others.
I am not sorry that I have had a part to play in exposing Winston’s duplicity and his lies.

People like you and mum and all your great friends deserved much better.

I know he promised much but he only did things he knew were popular. It was the shallowest of politics.

So today, simply because it is father’s day and I love you, I paused to reflect on what I was doing and the reasons for doing it.

You never tolerated people who used and deceived others.

So I know that you will be sad to find out that Winston is not the good man you and many of your friends thought him to be. But you will be proud of me for saying enough is enough.

I want you to be able to go to the polling booth in a few weeks time knowing that there is no tolerance for political corruption in this country and that you, by being a good father, gave me the courage to play a small part uncovering the truth about Winston and keep corruption from our political corridors.

So dad thanks for being the best a dad could be.
Arohanui and happy father’s day.