The Sensible Sentencing Trust has accused the Green Party of hypocrisy, saying it threatened legal action over the trust’s attack advertising while promoting a law to protect parody and satire.

The trust said the Greens had raised copyright infringement, passing off and misleading conduct over billboards and full page newspaper advertisements that used the party’s stylised “G” and logo.

The trust rejected the allegations and denied liability for damages or costs, national spokesperson Louise Parsons said.

It has declined to give the undertakings the Greens asked for and has asked the party to substantiate its claims.

“Let’s call this what it is: hypocrisy,” Parsons said.

The Greens used other parties’ logos when criticising their opponents on their own social media channels, she said.

“Why is it fair game for them, but grounds for legal threats when someone does it to them?”

Green MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill passed its first reading in April. It would create an exception in copyright law so comedians, artists and others can use copyrighted material for parody and satire without facing costly legal action.

“This Bill would help protect New Zealand’s comedians from legal threats and outsized egos,” Carter said when the bill passed its first reading.

Parsons said the Greens had “supplied the perfect description of their own behaviour”.

“Our billboards criticise the Greens. They do not suggest the Greens endorse our campaign. That is the whole point.”

The dispute follows a row over trust billboards showing Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Green co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick beside the words “BACKING THE GANGS for all of us”.

“For all of us” is the Green Party’s election slogan.

The billboards appeared on JCDecaux sites in Auckland in late October, and the Advertising Standards Authority received five complaints, including one lodged on behalf of the Green Party.

The party complained the billboards used its official photographs, slogan, font and layout, and could be mistaken for Green Party advertising.

The trust and the billboard owner confirmed the advertisements had been removed and would not be used again, and the authority’s complaints board chair ruled the complaints settled on 30 October, without deciding whether the advertising code had been breached.

It is not the first time the trust’s billboards have targeted the Greens. In 2025, the authority’s complaints board ruled that trust billboards featuring Green MPs, the words “Vote Green” and a “defund the police” message were likely to confuse people and breached the advertising code.