ALAN SIMMONS
Alan Simmons lives in Turangi and for the last 50 years worked as a full time fishing and hunting guide. The Covid response put an end to international travel and clients and in 2022 he was forced to retire by police thuggery when his hip was fractured in a police action while he was standing on a street corner filming.
Alan has had a lifetime living and playing in the outdoors and standing up to protect it. He is still passionate about many of the major outdoor issues which he has advocated for for decades.
Alan has sat on a number of national body executives, boards, NGO and management groups and is active in promoting fishing and hunting as healthy outdoor activities. He has written two books, published countless articles and appeared in many TV shows worldwide. Has hunted and fished in many remote parts of the world
Alan stood for parliament in several elections to try and resolve a number of hunting, outdoor recreation and water quality issues. He then set up the NZ Outdoors Party and is currently its president. His aim is to bring about substantial change to recreational and commercial fishing as well as concerns around freshwater and other environmental issues.
Sue Grey LLB(Hons), BSc, RSH DipPHI
Sue is a self-employed lawyer who specialises in complex emerging issues. She is also co-leader of NZ
Outdoors and Freedom Party and one of New Zealand’s freedom heroes.
Sue has a double major in Biochemistry and Microbiology and RSHDipPHI. Her first career was as a Health Protection Officer where she worked for central government included investigating infectious diseases and contact tracing – perfect training for her to spot the many red flags with the unorthodox Covid response.
Sue’s potential as a lawyer emerged early in her LLB(Hons) study, with Sue winning numerous law awards, including for Auckland’s outstanding all round law student, representing New Zealand in the Jessup Moot in Washington DC and later writing the Fisheries volume of the Laws of New Zealand. Sue has worked for many different sectors in human rights and environmental issues, and deeply understands multiple perspectives.
For decades Sue has stepped up for the underdog, including for niche family businesses who have hit bureaucratic inertia, and for community interests facing human rights challenges, discrimination and abuse of power.
Some of Sue’s best known legal work was successfully challenging the apparent bias of former Supreme Court Justice William Wilson for the Saxmere ultrafine wool growers. She assisted a Seddon farmer to challenge his engineers for his poorly constructed irrigation dam. The dam hit national headlines when it slumped and required emergency dewatering after the Seddon earthquakes, creating a near civil defence emergency. Sue has also been a leader in medicinal cannabis law reform, part of a team who successfully challenged the attempted rezoning of protected parts of the Marlborough Sounds for salmon farming, and stopped the dumping of dredged Auckland harbour waste in the EEZ, east of Aotea Great Barrier Island.
Sue stepped up early during the COVID response to question the narrative and related abuse of power. She led several vaccine challenges to the High Court and Employment Court, and assisted many who were mandated out of their employment or charged with Covid related offenses. She has been a popular public speaker and commentator on an array of issues relating to abuse of power.
Sue was present on the convoy from Taupo, and from Day 1 of the Freedom Village until the very end – apart from a few days away to attend a prearranged strategic hui. She was actively involved in strategy and coordination, asking hard questions in person, by email and by OIA, legal research, and actively assisted many who were arrested.
She is mother to three thriving young adults, a keen adventurer and traveler, who solo backpacked through Asia for 9 months in her twenties and has since traveled to many parts of the world for both business and pleasure. In 2022 after our borders finally reopened, she attended the Nuremberg 75th anniversary and a medico-legal freedom conference in Vienna, as well as solo cycling the Outer Hebrides and the Portuguese Camino way.