The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party (“Freedom”) is proud to announce that prominent whistleblower and transparency advocate Barry Young will stand as a candidate for the party in the 2026 General Election.
Barry Young was the database administrator who developed the “pay-per-dose” system for Health NZ. He is better known for whistleblowing when the data showed unexpectedly high post-vax deaths. He was subsequently raided by armed police and charged after speaking out publicly about his concerns.
Barry Young brings decades of specialised technical expertise to his public stance on accountability. Well-known nationally and internationally for his courageous stand, Mr. Young remains locked in an ongoing legal battle through the courts to formally uphold and defend his whistleblower status following his public release of anonymised official health data.
His candidacy comes as the party campaigns for an historic constitutional change to introduce Direct Democracy into New Zealand. This will empower citizens to reclaim their power over government with Citizens Assemblies, Citizens’ Veto on unwanted laws and Citizen-Initiated Lawmaking.
Direct Democracy will strip absolute power away from centralised political elites and put it back in the hands of the public.
In accepting the candidacy, whistleblower Barry Young emphasised the urgent need to overhaul the political machinery anchored in the capital, drawing on his professional background, personal experience from abroad, and his own battles for transparency:
“I was the Oracle database administrator who developed the pay-per-dose system for Health NZ. I saw corruption first hand when I tried to show what I had found in the data, with deaths after the vaccine and how those that I worked for wanted to bury the truth. Data doesn’t lie, it’s just data,” said Mr. Young.
“I lived in Switzerland for a short while and saw how well Direct Democracy worked for Swiss communities. It would fix a lot of issues to have our own version here in New Zealand. Wellington is the center of top-down decision-making, where everyday New Zealanders increasingly feel ignored, over-regulated, and shut out by centralised bureaucracy. We need a radical shift toward direct democracy, true freedom of speech, and uncompromising transparency in our public institutions. I am standing to give a voice to those who refuse to be silenced and to fight for a system that truly serves the people.”
The party’s platform centers heavily on localism, decentralisation, bodily autonomy, and rebuilding public services to prioritise community well-being. Party leader Sue Grey welcomed Mr. Young to the 2026 campaign team, noting that his dedication to public truth makes him an exceptional champion for New Zealand and for the party.
As the campaign builds momentum, whistleblower Barry Young will be focusing his outreach on systemic government accountability, economic relief for everyday families, and championing the constitutional shift to direct democracy.
Great!!! Minister of Health would be perfect for him