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• Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has been accused of spreading disinformation about Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.
• The controversy involves Doyle’s social media posts using queer community language, sparking debate.
• Peters says the posts raise ‘serious questions’ about the Green MP’s suitability to be a member of the House.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has hit back at the Green Party after he was accused of spreading disinformation about Benjamin Doyle and the MP’s social media posts.

“It’s clear the Green Party think that Doyle’s posts, language and innuendo are perfectly acceptable – the rest of New Zealand does not – including members of the rainbow community. Any kiwi looking at those posts would have some serious questions and doubts about the suitability of these Green Party MPs,” Peters posted on X.

Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, won’t be at Parliament this week as the party deals with what Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick earlier said were “real world threats” against the MP and their whānau.

She said “context is critical” to a social media post that has caught attention, including that of Peters.

Peters, who is also NZ First leader, has argued Doyle’s posts warrant investigation, including by the police.

Doyle is the Green Party spokesperson for Takatāpui and Rainbow Communities, ACC, Internal Affairs, Associate Health (Sexual & Reproductive Health) and Associate Education (Māori and ECE).

Among their social media profiles is an Instagram profile under the name “Biblebeltbussy”.

The account is private and now says it is “ON HIATUS”.

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick address media about MP Benjamin Doyle. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The word “bussy” is slang used by some members of the queer community and is commonly understood to refer to a male’s anus.

According to screenshots posted to social media, the account posted a photo of Doyle and a child with the caption: “bussy galore”.

Swarbrick said this morning “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.

The date of the post is October 2023, predating Doyle becoming an MP (Doyle was declared elected in October 2024 after the Greens voted to remove Darleen Tana).

Green Party leaders, members and other MPs including Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters were tagged in posts on X about the “Biblebeltbussy” account at the weekend.

Posting on X, the New Zealand First leader said there were “many questions ”that the Green Party and Doyle need to answer as elected representatives" including the appropriateness of the post and the language used, “including what ‘Bussy’ and ‘Bussy Galore’ mean”.

“If the police want to investigate they can,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Police have been approached for comment. Peters’ office referred the Herald to the X post when approached.

Swarbrick said in a statement this morning Peters had “decided to double down on disinformation, fanning the flames of hatred towards the rainbow community that we have recently seen can lead to real world violence”.

“Over the weekend, we reached out to the Prime Minister directly, and New Zealand First’s Chief of Staff, to ensure they understand the danger this behaviour creates.

“We have been screening immense numbers of death threats and abuse directed at our MP, Benjamin Doyle and their child. These are driven by dangerous conspiracy thinking amplified by Destiny’s Church and the Deputy Prime Minister,” Swarbrick said in a statement.

“This isn’t a game. We’ve seen Destiny Church physically attack people at Drag Story Time only a month ago, grounded in the deeply dangerous trope that the rainbow community presents a danger to children. These attacks on Benjamin come from the same playbook.

“Enough is enough. The Prime Minister must shut down this behaviour,” Swarbrick said.

Peters, in a later response on X, said:

“All we have said is that they are inappropriate and that the media need to ask questions.

“How is that “disinformation”? How is that an attack on ‘rainbow community’?"

Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

At a press conference on Monday, Swarbrick was pushed on whether the language used alongside an image of a child was appropriate.

“You are, I think, trying to put this in quite an oversimplified frame... what we’re talking about here is a member of the queer community using language that is absurd and irreverent and often times used within the queer community. Context is critical.”

She said she accepted some words “are used in different ways by different people”.

“Minority communities oftentimes end up using language or co-opting language, which can be considered to be slurs or otherwise by external groups in ways that are absurd and irreverent, and I believe that there is a level of social responsibility that we as Members of Parliament and you all as members of the news media have with regard to not oversimplify the story.”

Swarbrick said the context of this situation was “Benjamin had a title of a private account which was related to terminology that is used within the queer community”.

“There are a number of far right conspiratorial actors who are imputing meaning to that and the long bow that they seem to be drawing is that by virtue of use of that terminology that the rainbow community poses a real world threat to children.”

Asked whether it was true Doyle had removed a large number of posts, Swarbrick said it was Doyle’s response “to feeling as though their child was in immediate danger”.

“When somebody sees that things on their private account are being leaked, including mis- and disinformation relating to their child, I think that it’s pretty normal for somebody to respond in such a way to try and shut that down.”

The co-leader said she got in touch with the Prime Minister directly on Saturday morning, and he passed that along to his Chief of Staff.

“Both our Chief of Staff from the Green Party and the National Party Chief of Staff had a conversation about the real world harm. I again have reached out to the Prime Minister directly this morning, via the phone and have not yet heard back.”

According to a Green Party profile page from 2023, Doyle described themselves as “a pāpā, a teacher, a researcher, and a community organiser”.

“I am also proudly takatāpui and whaikaha. For nearly 10 years I have taught and lead in secondary schools in both Tāmaki Makaurau and Kirikiriroa with a focus on rangatahi Māori achieving equitable educational outcomes,” Doyle said in the profile.