Green Party co-leaders have spoken in support of their MP Benjamin Doyle, who has received an “immense number of death threats and abuse” for a username on their personal account.
“We are deeply concerned that the deputy Prime minister has doubled down on disinformation and is actively fanning flames of hatred towards the beautiful rainbow community,” said Marama Davidson.
“These threats are driven by dangerous conspiracy thinking and are amplified by Destiny’s Church and the Deputy Prime Minister.
“Members of any minority community, like our rainbow community, are accustomed to using and co-opting terms that may not be well understood by external groups, oftentimes with irreverence and absurdity. The central conspiracy here is that the use of such a word on a private account by an MP, before they were an MP, is inherently suspicious.”
She said “this isn’t a game”, linking back to the Destiny Church members who stormed a Drag Story Time, where seven people were later arrested, most on assault charges.
Chlöe Swarbrick confirmed that Doyle would not be sitting in the House this week and said they are working with parliamentary security to ensure the safety of Doyle and their whānau after both they and their child received death threats.
When asked about the now-deleted posts, Swarbrick said it was normal for a person to remove posts of their child from a private account if they were being leaked and linked to misinformation.
“This was Benjamin’s response to feeling as though their child was in immediate danger.”
This comes after deputy prime minister Winston Peters made comments about Doyle’s personal private Instagram account, BibleBeltBussy.
Peters was particularly upset with media due to the MPs private personal account having pictures of their child under the user name which uses slang that refers to a male anus.
The media need to start asking serious questions about Green MP Benjamin Doyle and his “alternate” social media account “BibleBeltBussy” - what that really means and his posts - some of which have apparently been deleted. If it were any MP from a government party the media…
— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) March 28, 2025
“The media need to start asking serious questions about Green MP Benjamin Doyle and his “alternate” social media account “BibleBeltBussy”," Peters tweeted on Saturday.
“The silence from the Green Party leadership amongst the swirling allegations and innuendo online is deafening.
“This is the guy who wants to provide puberty blockers on demand and surgery for children.”
On Monday morning he would tweet again about the situation stating all he wants is clarity.
What we are saying is there are many questions that the Green Party and Doyle need to answer as elected representatives including the appropriateness of his posts, his language, including what “Bussy” and “Bussy Galore” mean, what the symbols he uses mean, and in particular using…
— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) March 30, 2025
“We are not accusing him of anything. If the police want to investigate they can.
“The public can decide their judgement. But the public have a right to know who and what they are voting for.”
Over the weekend, the Green Party called on Christopher Luxon and New Zealand First’s Chief of Staff about Peters’s comments. Swarbrick said she’s personally tried reaching out to Luxon but has not recieved a response yet.
