The Greens are demanding the prime minister step in over Winston Peters' statements, saying they have led to "immense" numbers of death threats against Green MP Benjamin Doyle.
Peters in a social media post on Saturday said the media needed to start asking serious questions about one of Doyle's social media accounts, "BibleBeltBussy - what the name really means and the posts - some of which have apparently been deleted".
The term "Bussy" is used by members of rainbow communities and refers to a man's anus.
"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," Peters wrote.
Winston Peters Photo: RNZ / Nate Mckinnon
On Monday morning, Peters said: "What we are saying is there are many questions that the Green Party and Doyle need to answer as elected representatives including the appropriateness of his posts, his language, including what "Bussy" and "Bussy Galore" mean, what the symbols he uses mean, and in particular using that language and innuendo with the nature of the pictures he posted - and why he has deleted 52 of those posts."
Doyle uses the pronouns they/them.
Doyle had posted a series of messages and images on the private account before they were an MP, including an image of their child.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the term bussy had been co-opted by rainbow communities for use "oftentimes with irreverence and absurdity".
"We have a member of parliament that has been subjected to immense abuse and real-world death threats which have also incorporated their child and their whānau," she said.
As a member of the queer community herself, she said the "oversimplified way that things are being represented right now in the twittersphere is just not the way that we navigate the world with irreverence and absurdity".
"[Doyle] used it in a flippant way, in the way in which many of us would use memes when engaging with our friends. That's it," she said. "You would use it in a way that you would share a meme with a friend."
She said Doyle's social media account had been private since before they became an MP.
Asked about the deletions of some of the posts, Swarbrick said it was a private account, and "when somebody sees that things on their private account are being leaked including mis and disinformation relating to their child, I think it's pretty normal for somebody to respond in such a way, to try and shut that down".
"As far as I am aware this was Benjamin's response to feeling that their child was in immediate danger."
Co-leader Marama Davidson said she wanted to address Peters' comments and the harm it was causing.
"We are calling on the prime minister to take responsibility for the behaviour of his coalition colleague," she said.
"This isn't the standard politicking by the deputy prime minister. This isn't a game of who's winning this round of clickbait."
Benjamin Doyle. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
Peters refused to answer questions about his posts about Doyle in a media conference about specifications for the new Interislander ferries, but addressed the matter separately later in the day.
"How could I be possible spreading disinformation? It's (their) post, not mine," Peters said.
"It's not about using language I don't agree with. The photographs are concerning, but I want (them) to explain why (they) did that and if they were legitimate why did (they) pull 52 of the posts down?
Peters said he was just asking questions, including of the mainstream media.
"I'm asking of the mainstream media why don't you do your job when it comes to some MPs and spend your time trying to besiege other MPs who in this case, in my case, were utterly innocent," he said.
"Three court cases and we smashed the Serious Fraud Office and you took their side all the way through and never apologised, and when we won you never put it on TV."
He said he took no responsibility for the death threats because "the Green Party came to our office well after the threats had been given to tell us that this had been happening".
"We had already posted by that time at 9 o'clock in the morning. So for 24 and more hours before that, that was happening. We are not responsible therefore, on the chronological grounds that I've just given to you," he said.
Peters was not concerned his actions may have added to the problem.
"That was going on long before I ever said anything, all I did was get the information and say 'hang on, this is alarming, I want some answers," he said.
Peters also pushed back when it was pointed out he had not used Doyle's pronouns.
"Oh no don't give me this pronoun rubbish. This is just not going to be acceptable. I've got all sorts of people from the rainbow community who are agreeing with what I'm saying."
Minister Winston Peters speaks to media after comments over Green MP Benjamin Doyle's social media posts. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Swarbrick said she had sent a text message to Luxon on Saturday morning asking to speak with him about the matter and her concerns about the death threats. Luxon had passed the message on to National's chief of staff, who then had a conversation with the Greens' chief of staff about the harm it was leading to.
"I again have reached out to the prime minister directly via the phone this morning and have not heard back."
She said Doyle would not be present at Parliament this week.
"There are real-world threats that we are having to grapple with and we are working with Parliamentary security on what it looks like to keep them and their child, their whānau, safe ... we will continue to reach across the aisle and operate in good faith here, I don't think that it is in anybody's interests that this conspiratorial story continues to get legs."
In an earlier statement, Swarbrick said Peters had "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".
"We have been screening immense numbers of death threats and abuse directed at our MP, Benjamin Doyle and their child. These are driven by dangerous conspiracy thinking amplified by Destiny's Church and the Deputy Prime Minister."
She said the party had contacted Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his chief of staff directly, and was asking for him to end Peters' "attacks on the rainbow community".
"This isn't a game. We've seen Destiny's 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."
"Enough is enough. The Prime Minister must shut down this behaviour," Swarbrick said.
'Really inappropriate' - Luxon
Questioned about the matter at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, Luxon said he thought Doyle's use of language in their social media posts had been "really inappropriate".
"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. And ultimately that's a case for the Greens' leadership to deal with," he said.
"If that was one of my MPs I think you would rightfully be scrutinising me about what I'm doing about that social media language being used, I think those are questions for the Green Party and the leadership to answer for."
He said any threats of violence, death threats or otherwise, were "totally unacceptable on MPs or frankly any New Zealander"
Asked if he supported the actions of Peters - who had acknowledged he already knew of death threats against Doyle before he posted about the matter on social media - Luxon said the "only people who should be accountable for death threats are those that make those death threats".
"If there's an issue there, then the police need to be very much involved."
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