Slang has been used in the queer space for decades and as Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick puts it, communities such as the rainbow one are accustomed to “using and co-opting terms that may not be well understood by external groups, oftentimes with irreverence and absurdity”.
But, Doyle’s use of the term alongside an image of a child has sparked accusations of vulgarity and inappropriateness. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said on X that Doyle should answer for the posts and that “if police want to investigate, they can”.
In a press conference, Peters doubled down. “All I’m asking you is to ask him to explain his posts. That’s all.
“What does ‘bussy galore’ mean? And what does it mean with all those photographs? Why have the 52 posts been taken down? Have you seen them? You journalists would have asked any other member of parliament. If it had been a white man, you’d have asked them thousands of questions. Not a word, not a syllable, not a sound, not a mutter, not a murmur,” he said.
Swarbrick has said they are screening “immense numbers” of death threats and abuse directed at Doyle and their child.
“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,” she said.
Peters has denounced the death threats as well. He posted on X: “Every death threat is unacceptable and should be taken seriously by authorities. I know, because I have had plenty — it comes with the territory.”
Victoria University of Wellington politics professor Lara Greaves told The Front Page it seems Peters has seen an opportunity to grasp the media spotlight and beat the drum for the broader anti-woke movement.
“It really has been a bit of dirty politics... There’s also that very uncomfortable tension here and it goes back to queer politics in the 1980s and earlier around the discussion of homosexual law reform, where Peters is in some way kind of leaving the door open... not directly accusing Benjamin Doyle of paedophilia, but that is what a lot of people online are saying, which is disgusting.
“Peters is dancing a dance here to make sure that he doesn’t say anything that he could be liable for or that it could turn into a long-running thing, but still intimating something quite disgusting,” she said.
Thinking about why Peters has so publicly inserted his reckons into this once solely online saga, Greaves pointed to the fact NZ First would be well aware it needs to get to the 5% party vote threshold.
“We’re sitting in about a year and a half out from the election, they need to start thinking about how they get to that 5%. The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study data and various other data sources show that 2-3% of voters are loyal to them.
“They normally have to find that couple of per cent from elsewhere. And I think a lot of us have been discussing where they will find that vote and make sure they nail that 5% threshold.
“One of the rhetorical strategies they’ve definitely gone down is the cultural wars, the anti-woke, the DEI. We’ve seen a lot of discussion about diversity and inclusion initiatives and the public service coming from NZ First. This does seem to be the route that they’re going down. The whole “PC gone mad” was the kind of version of it 20 years ago.
“A non-binary MP in the Greens does represent a lot of that — what they would call a ‘woke’ movement. Others would just call it social justice, inclusion, or demographic representation of communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“We’ve also seen Peters refuse to use Benjamin Doyle’s they/them pronouns... That’s another thing we’ve seen internationally as well — when people are engaging in that culture wars type thing and the inclusion or exclusion of non-binary people.
“So ultimately, NZ First is really importing a lot of the culture wars rhetoric, a lot of anti-woke DEI rhetoric that we’re seeing a lot in the US and Canada,” she said.
Nearly 18 months out from next year’s election, Greaves said all signs point to a difficult campaign.
“I suspect we will be in for a bit of a dirty campaign. Again, that role of social media, the internet, really [will] start to rear its head in New Zealand.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about what could be dirty politics at play.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
