In brief

• Green MP Benjamin Doyle, ECE spokesperson, is linked to a now-private alt Instagram account, @BibleBeltBussy, featuring suggestive images involving a child.
  
• The account captioned a photo “Bussy Galore”; “bussy” is slang for a boy’s anus.
  
• Winston Peters slammed media silence.
  
• 52 posts have been deleted at some point, and the account has since been made private.
  
• Green and Māori MPs, plus activists, followed the account.

• Doyle and the Greens have been approached for comment. 

Where’s the media?

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is questioning why mainstream media are still silent after 24 hours about an alleged sexualised child image scandal involving Green MP Benjamin Doyle, the party’s spokesman on Early Childhood Education.

News broke like a storm on social media yesterday as images from a social media account – @BibleBeltBussy – operated by Benjamin Doyle, were published on X and Instagram.

Google AI reports “bussy” is LGBTQIA+ slang for a boy’s anus, being a “portmanteau of ‘boy’ and ‘-ussy’ and is used…in a receptive sexual context.”

The photos posted by @BibleBeltBussy include a young boy being kissed on the mouth by a man, or alternatively sitting on what appears to be Doyle’s lap, captioned by him “Bussy Galore”.

The story breaks on X

Researcher Ani O’Brien, who picked up the story broken by X user HolyHekaTuiTeka, provided the latter’s screenshot proof that Doyle operated the @BibleBeltBussy account, and that the account’s followers include Green co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also follows, as do Green MPs Ricardo Menendez-March and Huhana Lyndon. The rainbow charity InsideOut Koaro, tasked by Labour to introduce trans ideology into school sex-ed classes (which the legacy media have been defending recently), is also a follower, as is Te Ao Māori tv presenter Whatitiri Te Wake.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that the followers knew of or endorsed the content, posted in 2023, but social media users are now asking questions about who knew of the posts and when they knew and what action, if any, they took. BibleBeltBussy was not Doyle’s official political account, which would be expected to have political colleagues following. Instead it’s an “alt” account.

Adding to the heat on the politicians listed, the BibleBeltBussy account only had a total of four posts left as of today, with 52 historic posts apparently deleted and the account made private overnight.

Ani O’Brien explained on X why she retweeted the images:

I tweeted that screenshot from Benjamin Doyle’s alt Instagram today because for months people have been trying to get media to ask questions about it.

These are ordinary non-politician people. They’ve asked me before to share it & I believe some of them have shared it before too. This was a last ditch attempt at drawing some attention to seriously concerning behaviour.

I feel gross sharing the image even with the child’s face blurred out. But questions need to be asked of Doyle & the Greens. Unbelievably some people are trying to defend him. They’re saying it was a joke or that it is gay culture (this sickens me because I am gay & I assure you it is not).

Does any one really think that if a Nat/Act/NZF MP had an alt Instagram account called “BibleBeltPussy” with captions like “Pussy Galore” & images of kids with legs spread or kissing the MP, & with the geo tag “Cognitive Dissonance” which happens to be pinned just outside a town called “Cumming” in the USA, that the media wouldn’t have it on the front page?

They’d write nearly as many stories on it as they did on school lunches.

Doyle is believed to be a parent of the boy in the pictures, but commentators will likely question the wisdom of a parent “joking” about the sexualisation of children whilst being an MP, let alone being Green Party early childhood education spokesman.

It is possible the politicians and other followers have joined subsequent to the 2023 photos and were unaware of them specifically, but questions remain over the 52 posts in total that have now been deleted.

Winston Peters weighs in

NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters posted on X:

“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 would’ve already headlined it. 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.

Peters concluded his post by saying, “Doyle has been placed in Parliament to sabotage the ethical beliefs our society stands for.”

Doyle and The Green Party have been approached for comment.