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**Warning – this story contains language that some people may find offensive**
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has launched another blistering attack on the Green Party and its List MP Benjamin Doyle over Doyle’s controversial social media posts.
Peters has been one of the most vocal critics of social media posts by Doyle, who is non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them.
Doyle came under the spotlight last week when people highlighted social media posts they had made that contained sexualised language and photos of a child.
The MP operated a social media account named ‘BibleBeltBussy’, with “bussy” said to be a combination of the word “boy” and a slang term for female genitalia.
News media have reported the ‘BibleBeltBussy’ account posted a photo of Doyle with a child and the caption “bussy galore”.
Peters has called on the Green Party and Doyle to explain what “bussy” means.
Green Party co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson have publicly defended Doyle.
Swarbrick has said some people in minority communities sometimes use language that only they understand the context of.
The co-leaders said Doyle received death threats after the MP’s social media posts were publicised.
Peters went on the attack against the Green Party and Doyle last week.
He said Doyle wants to “provide puberty blockers on demand and surgery for children”.
“Doyle has been placed in Parliament to sabotage ethical beliefs our society stands for,” he said.
“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.”
Doyle’s social media posts have been publicly defended by Labour Party MPs including leader Chris Hipkins, Shanan Halbert and Ayesha Verrall, among others.
But Prime Minister and Botany MP Christopher Luxon has labelled Doyle’s language on social media as “inappropriate”.
During the general debate in Parliament last Wednesday, Peters again went on the attack against the Green Party and Doyle.
“You know something, they’re trying to explain to New Zealand what the term ‘bussy’ means, along with what the blue spiral emoji is, and how an eggplant emoji is – to use their lousy explanation – ‘just the way the Rainbow community does it’,” Peters said.
“Oh no they don’t! That ain’t true. We have been emailed and messaged constantly over the last few days from members of the Rainbow community saying they back us, and they are totally disgusted with what Chlöe Swarbrick is trying to say and to justify and to involve them in. Those are the facts.”
Peters said the Green Party thinks it speaks on behalf of the Rainbow community.
“Oh no you don’t! We will not be cowering from asking them the hard questions and finding you out, and very shortly.
“New Zealanders are sick of this insipid cancer of ‘woke’ that has crept into our society.
“New Zealand First declared a war on woke and we are on the frontline of it.
“We will not put up with your bulldust any longer!”
He also criticised the Green Party for publicly defending Doyle’s social media posts and said the party’s “high point” in politics had “come and gone”.
“What a mess they’re in, the number of people they’ve sacked, one after the other,” Peters said.
“And as soon as the investigation goes into this guy, when he turns up back here, and he can use all the pronouns he darn likes, our pronouns begin with ‘T’ and ‘V’, they’re truth and verity, that’s what we’re going to have here.”
The Green Party says Doyle is away from Parliament and the party is working with Parliamentary Service to manage the security threat.
