[1] He was a part-time farmer,[2] and his 1940s Allis-Chalmers model C tractor is on display at Marlborough Museum.

[1] Brooks unsuccessfully contested the Marlborough electorate in the 1969 election, but he was beaten by the incumbent, Tom Shand of the National Party.

[4] After Shand's death only days after the general election, Brooks had a decisive win against Shand's son in the resulting by-election in February 1970[5] turning a 2500 vote loss from three months earlier into an 1100 vote winning margin.

[6] The Police once urged him to cancel an electorate meeting in Hanmer Springs as they had received a death threat against him over his opposition to the Vietnam War.

[7] He stood once more in the Marlborough electorate in the 1978 election but was narrowly defeated by National's Doug Kidd.