Recent negotiations between COORDINARE – South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network and Parkinson’s NSW were successful in securing a further $90,000 to fund the initiative, and extend the contract until June 30, 2018.

I am delighted that long-time Parkinson’s Disease Nurse, Nina Cheyne will continue her vital work in ensuring Parkinson’s sufferers, their carers, families and health professionals are well-supported.

Unfortunately, the chances of developing Parkinson’s are higher than that of prostate, bowel and many other cancers.

Parkinson’s is also the second most prevalent neurological disease.

With the number of Parkinson’s sufferers steadily growing it is important we have this service available within our region.

Nina’s work is invaluable, assisting sufferers to plan for better care, providing more effective self-management of the disease and ensuring patients can remain at home for longer.

I congratulate and thank all the parties involved in securing the additional funding, including COORDINAIRE – South Eastern NSW PHN CEO, Dianne Kitcher and Parkinson’s NSW CEO, Jo-Anne Reeves.

I have no doubt both organisations are fully committed to the collaboration and will work together to develop a long term sustainable model of care for Parkinson’s sufferers.

In the past decade increasing numbers of Australian voters have become displeased with the bad spirit of politics in Canberra - the persistently aggressive and juvenile tone of debate in parliament, the countless false promises at election time, and the reckless, sometimes even corrupt behaviour among some politicians. 

Australia is of course not the only country experiencing this.

Since about the end of the cold war in the early 1990s, governments in Western democracies have largely lost the trust of the public, mainly because the major political parties don’t reflect fundamental conflicting interests in society as they once did - between Capital and Labour, conservative and progressive, the Right and the Left. 

As a result the adversarial model of parliamentary democracy has lost its grip, and the government now lacks an effective opposition to hold it to account.

The watchdog function of the mainstream media has also suffered in the process, and while the new social media are increasingly playing a critical role in the public sphere, they are not a major political force yet. 

The current confusion and uncertainty, coupled with daily bad news about the economy, environment, social problems and security issues etc., cause considerable stress and anxiety for many citizens, which the erratic behaviour of our politicians does little or nothing to calm down.

They often seem to be more interested in their own prosperity and privileges than in the well-being of the community.

Unlike other Western nations, Australia is faced with an added problem.

Being such a young country and constitutionally dependent on Britain, it is still unsure about it's national identity.

This above all seems to be the reason for the negative tone in parliament. 

To develop a more confident political discourse, Australia needs to finally free itself from the colonial dependence on Britain and become a Republic - just as a child has to separate from the parents to become a mature adult. 

Seen in this way, the recent turmoil in Federal Parliament might in fact be 'the crisis Australia had to have' - as the country strives to become an independent national identity.