Mary Kay Walker, the CEO of Parkinson’s NSW, has had a very busy couple of months conducting an intensive advocacy campaign aiming to reach as many NSW Government decision-makers as possible.

Her campaign followed on the heels of a formal budget submission proposing that the NSW Government co-invest with Parkinson’s NSW and commit to a 3-year funding cycle to grow essential services delivered by our organisation.

Parkinson’s NSW is a not-for-profit entity, not a government organisation. It receives less than 10 percent of its operating costs from NSW Government grants. The balance of funding for essential services to the Parkinson’s community comes from hard-earned community fundraising, including support from individual donors, corporate partners, fundraising events, and people leaving gifts in their will (bequests).

“While equivalent peak bodies for other degenerative neurological disease have been well supported to execute their missions, Parkinson’s NSW has received modest funding from the NSW Government in recent years, and currently has no significant ongoing funding in place,” said Mary Kay

“It has become unsustainable for our organisation to keep pace with growing demand without co-investment by the NSW Government – which is what we proposed in our formal 2026 Budget submission some months ago.”

“What I have been doing since then is meeting as many key Government Ministers, Members of Parliament and Policy Advisors as possible to strongly put our case for increased investment in services for the NSW Parkinson’s community.”

This intensive advocacy campaign involved 27 meetings with key officials in electoral offices and Parliament House over a six-week period, plus the gathering of a dozen letters of support from Members of Parliament to the Minister for Health, urging favourable consideration of the Parkinson’s NSW proposal.

If successful, the co-investment with the NSW Government over a three-year period will fund:

• Additional clinical nurse support for the 1800 InfoLine
• Expansion of Counselling services
• Update and expansion of clinical information
• Establishment of additional Support Groups and an additional Support Group Officer.