Prime Minister Christopher Luxon condemned the threats, stating accountability lies with those making them.
Act leader David Seymour said if the Greens stood by their words they would report the threats to the Mongrel Mob.
Act Party leader David Seymour says if the Green Party stood by their “empty words” they would report threats against MP Benjamin Doyle to the Mongrel Mob.
Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, is away from Parliament amid a storm of controversy overtheir Instagram account “BibleBeltBussy”.
Green Party leader Chlöe Swarbrick said they had been screening “immense numbers of death threats and abuse” directed at Doyle and their whānau.
In a Facebook post today, Seymour brought up the threats and said “the shoe is on the other foot”.
“If the Greens stood by their own empty words they’d be reporting the threats to the Mongrel Mob,” he wrote.
“Despite their anti-police virtue-signalling, as soon as the silver spoon socialists of the Greens feel like they might be victims themselves they get the police involved.”
Seymour said Act “will always support the police to keep Kiwis safe”.
A Green Party spokesperson said they would not comment and “Seymour’s comments speak for themselves”.
Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero told the Herald: ”We take the security of our members very seriously and are working closely with the member and police.
“For security reasons, we cannot comment further on the support provided.”
Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle is away from Parliament amid a storm of controversy. Photo / Green Party
Late last year, Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter told the House: “For many people in New Zealand, they would feel safer alone with a patched [gang] member than police”.
The profile is private and notes in its biography that it is “on hiatus”.
The account used queer community language alongside images of a child, understood to be Doyle’s.
NZ First leader Peters has been among those posting on social media about the topic, questioning the appropriateness of the post, “in particular using that language and innuendo with the nature of the pictures he posted”.
Swarbrick said members of minority communities, such as the rainbow community, were “accustomed to using and co-opting terms that may not be well understood by external groups, oftentimes with irreverence and absurdity”.
“The central conspiracy here is that the use of such a word on a private account by an MP, before they were an MP, is inherently suspicious,” she said.
Swarbrick said the party had been screening “immense numbers of death threats and abuse” directed at Doyle and their child and was critical of Peters amplifying questions about the posts.
“The Deputy Prime Minister has decided to double down on disinformation, fanning the flames of hatred towards the rainbow community that we have recently seen can lead to real world violence,” she said.
Green MP Benjamin Doyle and NZ First Leader Winston Peters (inset).
Questioned about the Greens’ response, Peters said all he had said was that the posts “are inappropriate” and questions needed to be asked. He said he was aware of members of the rainbow community who had taken issue with Doyle’s comments.
“I didn’t make the posts, [Doyle] did. This is identity politics at its worst. This is virtue signalling at its worst ... This is not an anti-rainbow thing.”
Peters said there was no excuse for death threats against Doyle but denied he or his party was responsible, noting they had begun before Peters himself posting.
Swarbrick said she got in touch with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon directly on Saturday about the matter and was calling on him to “shut down this behaviour”.
Asked about that on Monday afternoon, Luxon said: “Any threats of violence, death threats, or otherwise is totally unacceptable on MPs or frankly any New Zealander.
“I think accountability lies with those that are making those threats.”
Luxon believed the language used by Doyle “was really inappropriate”.
“In the scrutiny and the reality of political life, our social media language is scrutinised by the media. It’s also scrutinised by fellow politicians and also the public. Ultimately, that is a case for the Greens’ leadership to deal with.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the way Doyle’s private social media posts had been “politicised” was “very unfortunate”.
“I think some of the aspersions cast on Benjamin’s character are really horrific and really ugly and portray an ugly side of New Zealand politics that I don’t want to add fuel to,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins said he was “not going to form a judgment” regarding the content of Doyle’s posts.
