His political opponents have referred to him during question time as "Pol Pot" or "the Honourable Member for Cambodia" due to supportive articles he wrote while editor of the New Zealand "Socialist Action" newspaper about the Khmer Rouge regime under the headline; "Cambodia liberated: victory for humanity". Locke claimed his initial support for the Khmer Rouge was because "...many people thought the Khmer Rouge were an adjunct of the Vietnamese communist forces" and that he thought they "...would be better than the regimes they replaced". He also responded that he renounced his support after hearing of their atrocities, while the New Zealand Government of the time continued to express support for the regime.