In brief
- Green MP Benjamin Doyle posted a photo of a child alongside the caption “Bussy Galore” and then deleted 52 posts from a personal but publicly accessible Instagram account before making it private.
- Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick dismissed concerns as a “conspiracy,” calling the term queer slang used with “irreverence.”
- Deputy PM Winston Peters questioned Doyle’s judgement and the media’s silence.
- The Prime Minister supported Peters but was critical of any alleged threats against Doyle.
- RNZ, Stuff, and the Herald ran near-identical coverage focused on the backlash, not the content.
- Critics say a National or ACT MP would face far tougher scrutiny — and the coordinated defence exposes a clear double standard.
Swarbrick defends caption ‘Bussy Galore’ as absurdist queer expression
Whether by shared instinct or coordinated effort, both the Green Party and mainstream media have closed ranks around Green MP Benjamin Doyle following the emergence of controversial social media posts.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has launched a full-throated defence of Doyle, the party’s early childhood education spokesperson, after news broke about their now-private Instagram account featuring, among other images, a child and the caption “Bussy Galore.”
The term “bussy” is widely recognised as slang for a boy’s anus. The image was posted to Doyle’s alternate account, @BibleBeltBussy, which was later made private after 52 posts were deleted overnight.
Instead of questioning Doyle’s judgement, Swarbrick dismissed the concerns as a “conspiracy” and claimed the term was simply queer slang used in an “absurd” or “irreverent” way. She accused the media of “oversimplifying” language used within the rainbow community.
Swarbrick also attacked Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters — the only senior politician to raise the issue publicly — accusing him of “fanning the flames of hatred” and placing the rainbow community at risk. Notably, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon came out in defense of Peters’ judgement, but was critical of any threats that may have been made against Doyle.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson immediately shut down the presser on Monday to address the furore surrounding Doyle after Swarbrick stated the term “bussy” is a term used by a “particular subset of the Rainbow community of which Benjamin Doyle is a part.”
It’s unclear which “particular subset” Swarbrick is referring to.
The ‘death threats’ dodge: when clarity muddies the truth
Earlier in the press conference, Davidson paused to read deliberately from her notes: “I want to be extremely clear here…” What followed, however, was anything but.
Davidson claimed that Green MP Benjamin Doyle and his child were receiving an “immense number of death threats and abuse,” which she linked directly to the online controversy surrounding Doyle’s alt account, @BibleBeltBussy. She blamed “dangerous conspiracy thinking” and said the threats were being “amplified by Destiny’s Church and the Deputy Prime Minister.”
Yet, the facts now suggest a different picture. According to RNZ reporting, there is only one death threat currently known to be officially filed with Parliamentary Services — and it is not clear if it ties to Doyle’s earlier support for puberty blockers or the controversy over his Instagram posts. According to The Platform’s Sean Plunket “Those death threats came after a speech outside Parliament where [Doyle] strongly advocated for the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Whether deliberately or not, Davidson’s careful delivery gave many the impression that numerous threats were a direct result of unhinged actors reacting to Winston Peters’ statements about the Instagram images — and that any criticism of Doyle was complicit in endangering a queer parent and child. But if the threat had occurred a month earlier, the Green leadership’s statement begins to look less like transparency and more like narrative management.
What is clear are the straightforward facts. This is about an individual, not a community, a sitting MP tasked with oversight of early childhood policy, who posted an image of a child, possibly their own, with a suggestive caption.
The image was not taken out of context — it formed part of a broader pattern of content on a curated alt account, which included suggestive language and a profile name referencing sexualised themes.
In a widely shared opinion piece for Centrist.nz, investigative journalist Ian Wishart argued there was enough “dog-whistling” evident in Doyle’s social media history to warrant serious scrutiny.
Mainstream media rush to suppress the story, not report it
After days of online pressure and growing attention on social media, three of New Zealand’s largest news outlets — Stuff, RNZ, and the New Zealand Herald — published near-identical coverage of the controversy on Monday morning, within the hour. Their message: Doyle is a victim and the real story was not Doyle’s deleted posts, but the backlash.
None of the reports were bylined. All focused on alleged death threats and abuse directed at Doyle, shifting attention away from the original content. In a rare moment of synchronous messaging, the outlets echoed the Green Party’s framing — citing “disinformation,” “dangerous conspiracy thinking,” and “attacks on the rainbow community.”
No article questioned what “Bussy Galore” meant in the context of a child’s image. None addressed the deletion of 52 posts. None questioned the judgement of an MP overseeing early childhood education who used sexual slang in visible captions. Instead, the public were told the real threat lay in asking questions.
Doyle’s story was noticeably deprioritised or removed from the front pages of major media sites. TVNZ aside, legacy media journalism remains focused on framing Doyle as a victim.
This comes despite Doyle’s story trending on X and independent platforms like Centrist.nz and others seeing record traffic spikes.
In his initial interview on The Platform, the Deputy Prime Minister revealed that not a single media inquiry came to him from the legacy media after he made his now famous tweet calling for a closer look at Doyle’s online activity.
Spinoff editor knew for months — and said nothing
Even more damning, The Spinoff’s editor Madeleine Chapman admitted she had known about Doyle’s Instagram handle months ago but felt no journalistic need to report it or inquire further.
She wrote: “When Doyle was announced as an incoming MP following the removal of Darleen Tana in October last year, I knew about their personal account and its handle (biblebeltbussy). ‘They’ll need to get rid of that handle,’ I said at the time, and was surprised to see it still there months later.”
In a post on X, commentator Dieuwe de Boer asked: “Did the Green Party leader really come out and claim that p*dophile imagery and symbolism is part of queer culture, and journalists published that without a second thought?”
Media double standards on full display
Also, when it comes to trolling through old social media posts, The Spinoff did just that in the case of ACT MP Mark Cameron. Toby Manhire featured Cameron’s post in an exclusive, revealing Cameron’s grousing about climate change and Jacinda Ardern prior to his becoming an MP.
According to Plunket, Doyle’s @BibleBeltBussy account was live while Doyle was an Early Childhood Education representative for the Greens as a sitting MP.
Many will remember when mainstream media falsely claimed that Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka Posie Parker) was signalling white supremacist allegiance during an interview — simply by pulling up the zipper on her hoodie. Some outlets even blurred the footage, suggesting it resembled a far-right hand gesture.
Consider also the case of National MP Sam Uffindell, who was publicly hounded over bullying incidents that took place during his school years. The media ran wall-to-wall coverage, with headlines questioning his character and fitness for office — despite the events occurring decades earlier, long before he entered public life. Uffindell was temporarily stood down, investigated, and publicly shamed.
Yet in Doyle’s case, media outlets have largely avoided asking questions about behaviour that is recent, documented, and directly relevant to his role. The double standard is impossible to ignore. The reason for the double standard is another matter. Is it because it is the Rainbow community, the leftwing parties or something else?
Compared to Doyle’s now-deleted Instagram posts, it’s fair to say the media is being highly selective in what it chooses to report — and how it frames the story.
Notably, TVNZ seems to have broken ranks to criticise Swarbrick for her characterisation of the use of the term “bussy” as normal in the gay community. Other major outlets still appear to be running defense and, in our opinion, engaging in damage control.
What if the MP had been from National or ACT?
Green Party supporters insist the public reaction is rooted in phobias against the Rainbow community. But that framing ignores the content itself. If a National, ACT, or NZ First MP had run an alt account called “BibleBeltBussy,” posted a photo of a child on their lap with the caption “Bussy Galore”, and been followed by senior colleagues, we’re very suspicious they would not have been granted a pass.
Winston Peters was right to ask: what does “Bussy Galore” mean — and why was it used alongside that image? That question remains unanswered. Instead, the Green Party has launched a political and media operation designed not to clarify — but to shut the story down.
Centrist.nz welcomes correction or comment from any individuals or parties named in this report. If you believe an error has been made or context misrepresented, please contact [email protected].
Image: Green Party
