Winston Peters Declines Benjamin Doyle’s Invitation To Speak Directly

Russell
Palmer, Political Reporter

Winston
Peters is refusing to give up the fight after asking
questions about Green MP Benjamin Doyle, who in turn is
refusing to “be disappeared by hate”.

Doyle broke
their silence on Tuesday, saying they had received hundreds
of threats, including death threats, against them and their
child over recent weeks.

The threats are over images
shared on social media under Doyle’s private account named
“BibleBeltBussy” from before they entered Parliament in
October.

It included photos, including of their child,
and had the caption “Bussy Galore”. The term ‘bussy’ is
slang, used by some in the queer community, a portmanteau of
‘boy’ and ‘pussy’.

Doyle
on Tuesday explained what they intended it to
mean.

“The post at the centre of these baseless
attacks includes 10 images from a range of activities and
moments in my life, with a pop culture pun in the caption.
‘Bussy galore’ is an in-joke and a nickname. The translation
here is ‘me at large living my best life’.

“I
recognise that Bussy is not a term all rainbow people use or
like, but it is one that is commonly understood and
appreciated by my friends and community … it’s kind of a
nickname or persona for me, much like, I dunno, a character
like Fred Dagg … Bussy Galore is a wordplay of the
character from the James Bond novel Goldfinger, Pussy
Galore.”

Other social media users reposted the images
and captions without that context. Peters had posted on
Saturday suggesting police could investigate, saying media
would have reported on it earlier had Doyle been from a
coalition party.

The Greens spoke to media last week,
saying Doyle
was getting death threats. The MP has remained absent
from Parliament since then over fears for their
safety.

On
Tuesday, Doyle said the threats numbered in the hundreds,
and revealed the Green Party had advised the posts be
deleted – but that never happened because “I am here to
bring my full self into Parliament and to represent my
communities in the most authentic way
possible”.

Peters to fight on

Peters did not
seem satisfied, telling RNZ the posts on Doyle’s account
“are not there innocently”.

“Why did the Green Party
tell Doyle to take his post down when he was a candidate,
but they didn’t say that to the media last week – no, they
said it today – and then proceeded, lastly, to defend those
very posts they now claim to [have] originally told him to
remove,” Peters said.

Doyle uses they/them
pronouns.

“Where is the accountability, where’s the
responsibility for the Green Party, and here they are hiding
behind the rainbow community who in thousands and thousands
of cases are hopping mad they’re being misused in this way
and I’ve never seen such a flimsy excuse of
victimhood.

“When this started to happen they said
they were, there was, victims of death threats, which is
inexcusable – any threat like that is inexcusable – but they
never even told the police, no, they told Parliamentary
Security.”

Doyle on Tuesday offered to speak to Peters
directly.

“No, no, no, no, I’m sorry, he can speak
directly to the police and all those international bodies
that are concerned at these sort of posts,” Peters
said.

“Those are the people he needs to speak to, not
me, I’m not an inquirer … I’m not the police, I’m not the
authority, I’m just asking a simple question of the
mainstream media.”

Parliamentary Security has referred
at least one of Doyle’s concerns to police, and the
Green Party says Doyle themselves has been speaking to
police.

Police have not yet responded to requests for
comment.

Peters rejected Doyle’s explanation they had
been asked to remove the posts because of safety or online
abuse concerns.

“If that was the truth, why did they
take him to tell him it down when he was a candidate, before
he even came to Parliament? You see what I mean? Their
explanation won’t stand up to one serious
question.

“How come there’s a special standard for
them, a flimsy standard for them, and all the rest of us are
being held accountable?”

The Post newspaper has
revealed the originator of the online criticism was
businessman Rhys Williams, reporting that his thousands of
posts since 2023 include abusive language about politicians,
and one saying he started the account to get people to vote
for New Zealand First.

Peters said he has no memory of
meeting the man, who is not a member of the party.

His
own social media posts said NZ First will not “let this
flimsy excuse of ‘victim hood’ succeed”.

Asked how he
would do that, he promised “you’ll find out”.

Green
Party responds

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson
explained why she had not pushed harder for the posts to be
taken down.

“None of us could have predicted the way
that this was rarked up, and the extreme rhetoric that
happened … none of us knew that this was what was going to
happen – it was simply something that could be easily taken
out of context.

“That was something that was advised
and then the decision is, as Benjamin has said, is then left
up to them.”

When asked why the Greens did not earlier
explain the context behind the posts, or earlier explain
that the party had asked for the posts to be taken down, she
said it was “for Benjamin to speak to”.

“That was for
Benjamin to stand in their strength like they did today, and
walk through the whole situation.”

She said the reason
Doyle had delayed speaking out was to prioritise their
safety.

“They were fearful for their life and the life
of their family and their child. They felt unsafe. It would
have been completely neglectful for me as a co-leader, to
think that they could have done a stand up at that
time.”

She said there was no guarantee that if Doyle
had spoken earlier it would have prevented death threats
being levelled against them.

“We can’t even guarantee
that the death threats will shut down right now, even though
Benjamin has spoken, it was clear that we needed to put
first and center the total safety and wellbeing, and I’m
pleased that we did that.”

“Politicians can do what
they want to. That’s for them to answer to. I want to be
really clear. We need to be calling the responsibility for
all of us to take the heat out of the
rhetoric.”

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