Police say they have undertaken investigations into 10 reported threats against Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.
The confirmation comes months after Doyle was embroiled in a social media firestorm after posting controversial comments online.
Doyle announced today they are leaving Parliament, in a sudden resignation months after saying they refused to be “disappeared by hate” and did not consider standing down amid questions over their social media posts.
Asked tonight about a police review of threats against Doyle, Detective Inspector Warren Olsson, National Criminal Investigations Group, said there had been 10 reports under investigation.
“Police have issued formal warnings to four individuals for breaches of the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015.
“One case has been filed with no further police action. The other cases are progressing and remain under investigation.”
In a statement this afternoon, Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, said that, in recent months, “I have been on a journey of healing”.
“During this time, I have come to the realisation that I cannot complete this journey while in Parliament.
“After having baseless and violent accusations thrown at me, and an onslaught of hate, vitriol and threats of real-world violence directed at me and my whānau, I have decided to move on from Parliament.”
Doyle said whānau was the “most precious thing in the world”.
“From the start, I have always said my child is my priority. My tamati asked me to leave Parliament, and I am leaving for them and for my own wellbeing.
“I leave Parliament with pride, and that is something nobody can take away from me. It was a pleasure and a privilege to represent and work for the communities that carried me here. I am so grateful for their trust and guidance.
“I am leaving Parliament, I am not disappearing. I will continue to fight for people and planet, just not from inside this House.
“Our politics, our democracy and our Parliament should be a place for everyone. My time here has shown that we clearly still have work to do. I hope this experience is something that we can all learn and grow from.”
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said the party supported Doyle “prioritising their wellbeing and are grateful for the contribution they have made in Parliament”.
“As a country, we clearly have work to do in making politics a place that is safe for everyone.”
Doyle’s resignation brings more upheaval for a party that has already experienced the scandalous departures of two MPs this term, in Golriz Ghahraman and Darleen Tana, and the death of Efeso Collins.
Doyle replaced Tana in Parliament last year after her prolonged exit.
Next on the Greens’ list is Ilam’s Mike Davidson, a former Christchurch city councillor. He came fourth in the electorate vote at the 2023 election.
Doyle is expected to leave Parliament on October 3.
Earlier this year, Doyle faced intense scrutiny over old Instagram posts made before becoming an MP.
They included an image of Doyle and their child contained within an Instagram carousel of various images of a family event.
That carousel was captioned with the phrase “bussy galore”. The account’s name was “biblebeltbussy”.
Bussy is a portmanteau of “boy” and “pussy” and is slang used by some to refer to a male’s anus.
NZ First leader Winston Peters was among those questioning the appropriateness of the posts and called for an investigation.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said at the time that the term used on social media was “inappropriate”, but said it was a matter for the Greens to deal with.
The Greens worked with parliamentary security at the time to address what the party said were “immense” death threats. These were escalated to police when necessary.
Fronting a press conference in April, Doyle said the posts never had a sexual meaning and they didn’t believe they had done anything wrong. They said “bussy” was an “in-joke” and “nickname” given to them by friends.
“Bussy is a reference to me. Bussy is a wordplay of the character from the James Bond novel Goldfinger, Pussy Galore,” Doyle said.
“Plainly said, it is just about me. It is a reference to myself and no one else.”
They said they had a large community of followers on that Instagram account who understood to whom the term referred.
“Many cultures and people and communities and friends use nicknames or tongue-in-cheek references to each other in closed-group environments and circles of friends.”
However, Doyle admitted it had been “politically naive” not to delete the private Instagram account before entering Parliament, as they had been advised to. They said they didn’t expect it to lead to “baseless, personal and violent attacks”.
They said at the time that they had fielded “a significant number of threats to my life and the safety of my child and family”.
Doyle was away from Parliament briefly amid the heightened attention and spoke to police about the threats.
They said in April that some of the “hundreds” of threats“ have been so graphic and disturbing that I had been advised not to leave my house, or appear in public, due to real concerns for my security”.
“These attacks I’ve faced have been baseless and cruel. Queer people are not a danger to children. This is an outdated and homophobic lie.”
At the time, Doyle refused to be “disappeared by hate” and told the Herald that at no point did they consider resigning from Parliament.
“This is really important. This fight we are having right now, if I were to sit down and move away from this space, our community would lose a voice, and we don’t have much representation in here.”
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.