A petition demanding an investigation into Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle has drawn more than 6,000 signatures within a week, following public concern over disturbing posts from his personal Instagram account.

Titled "Investigate Benjamin Doyle and the Green Party for Alleged Child Exploitation", the Change.org petition highlights a series of posts by Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, under the username ‘Biblebeltbussy’.

This is New Zealand MP Benjamin Doyle. Of course, he identifies as non binary. Question is are the @nzpolice investigating the very concerning images this man has been posting involving incredibly young children? pic.twitter.com/J6FQWNCFoM

— Chantelle (@ChantelleBakerr) March 28, 2025

One such post, dated October 2023, featured a photo of Doyle’s child alongside the phrase “bussy galore” — a term widely recognised in LGBTQ+ slang shortened from “boy pussy” as referring to a male anus.

Another source of concern was the blue spiral symbol in Doyle’s bio. The symbol, identified by the FBI in a leaked document published by Wikileaks, is known as the ‘LittleBoyLover’ logo and allegedly used by paedophiles to signal preference for young boys.

Why did the Green Party tell Doyle to take down his posts when he was a candidate, but they didn’t say that to media last week, and then proceeded to defend those very posts they now claim to have originally told him to remove?

The posts were “problematic” for their content -…

— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) April 9, 2025

Criticism of the posts intensified when NZ First leader and Deputy PM of New Zealand Winston Peters called for police to investigate. Peters shared screenshots of Doyle’s account and wrote online: “This needs to be thoroughly investigated by police and not brushed aside because of identity politics.”

Despite the widespread nature of the backlash, legacy media outlets in New Zealand have defended Doyle. Wellington's The Post accused “inflammatory X users” such as @2ETEKA and Peters of contributing to a “torrent of abuse, including baseless accusations of criminal behaviour.”

Incredible clown show on at parliament this afternoon, in the clown room no less.

Ok so let me get this straight, Ben is sorry for his ‘political naivety’ not for the inappropriateness of those deeply disturbing posts. The implication is they would have been fine if he were not… pic.twitter.com/kYi250Yzjn

— Holyhekatuiteka (@2ETEKA) April 9, 2025

"The nature and intensity of the online attacks have raised questions about the boundary between legitimate scrutiny and harassment," The Post journalists claimed.

The Green Party blamed “far-right conspiratorial actors” for fuelling the controversy, and said Doyle had received an “immense” number of death threats, continuing the victim narrative.

The petition, however, frames the issue as one of child protection, stating:

“We are calling upon officials to deeply scrutinise both Benjamin Doyle and the Green Party in order to assess these allegations. The safety and wellbeing of our children should never be compromised, especially by those we entrust with their safeguarding.”

One signatory, Deborah Willoughby, commented: “Someone who endorses child sex on social media does not belong in NZ Parliament.” Another, Debbie Waitoa, wrote: “Children's wellbeing is paramount.”

Doyle finally responded to the controversy by saying: “I knew that people would not like the way I dress, or speak, or the causes that I advocate for... But I could never imagine or prepare myself to be attacked in such a baseless, personal, and violent way. That my life and that of my child would be threatened.”

“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,” he added.

Doyle confirmed that the Green Party had even advised him to delete his private Instagram account before entering Parliament, but he chose not to: “I am here to bring my full self into Parliament... This is why when I was advised by the party to delete the page before coming to Parliament, I chose not to.”

Peters slammed the Greens’ handling of the matter, calling Doyle’s response a “flimsy excuse of victimhood” and asking: “If there was nothing wrong, why tell them to take it down?”

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