In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, Barry was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to broadcasting.

[7] Barry has written for the New Zealand Listener since 2007, producing a fortnightly gardening column and occasional interview articles.

[10] She was selected as the National candidate for the safe seat of North Shore in May 2011 after the sitting MP Wayne Mapp decided not to run in the 2011 general election.

[16] In July 2012, Barry was mocked on social media for suggesting during a debate on paid parental leave that Jacinda Ardern could not speak with authority on the subject because of her (then) childless status.

[22] With over 80% of New Zealand's birds and reptiles endangered, Predator Free 2050 focuses on protecting these species from rats, stoats, possums, weasels and ferrets.

However once Winston Peters announced that he was to form a coalition with the Labour Party, National returned to opposition and Barry lost her government roles.

Barry did retain her electorate seat with a majority of 12,716, down on 16,503 the previous election, despite her personal vote only falling by a few hundred.

[29][30] When Simon Bridges was elected leader, Barry was demoted to 25 on the party list from 17, and lost her spokesperson for conservation role.

[35] Barry vigorously denied the claims that she bullied staff and that she used derogatory terms to describe members of Auckland Council's local boards despite recordings showing evidence of this.

The ex staffer who went to the media gave an exclusive interview to Radio New Zealand in which he spoke, under voice disguise, about how Barry treated him and other staff.

[38] Throughout the media attention on these issues Barry stated that 'I do not accept that there has been bullying and harassment in my workplace, I would not approve of that at all and I am not that kind of employer.

'[39] She emerged in a brief press conference backed by fellow MPs, Mark Mitchell, Simon O'Connor, and Nikki Kaye.

[44] In September 2019, Barry was again accused of bullying behaviour this time by a fellow MP on behalf of one of their party colleagues.

[46] Labour MP, Kieran McAnulty said Barry by "openly and aggressively verbally and physically challenging" had breached standing orders, and he intended to recommend the privileges committee censure her.

[51] On 4 July 2014, Barry said that she was groped by Australian entertainer Rolf Harris when he was in New Zealand during the 1980s and she was recording an interview she hosted from Palmerston North.

[54][55][56] At the time, a similar celebrity sexual conduct case was in the news, and retired parliamentarian Rodney Hide taunted Barry in his newspaper column, urging her to use her parliamentary privilege to breach the name suppression order against the defendant in the Queenstown suppressed indecency case.