Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2004, with the assistance and cooperation of like-minded members and senators, the Parkinson’s Parliamentary Support Group was formed. A key proponent of its establishment was one of my original constituents, who lived in Moss Vale, Mr Rod Irwin. Sadly, Rod passed away last month, on 30 October. I dedicate this statement to him and pay homage to his considerable contribution. Rod was afflicted by Parkinson’s disease but that did not slow him mentally. His was a sharp mind trapped in a withering shell. While it is terrible to see someone in that state, for the victim it is far worse. He served the public all his life—in the foreign service, with five postings; in AusAID; in Prime Minister and Cabinet; and in other areas. Although he was forced to retire due to Parkinson’s disease, he continued to work, at a more sedate pace, for Brain Injury Australia.

When Rod and his wife, Dympna, moved to the southern highlands of New South Wales he could not be idle. Rod joined the local Parkinson’s support group and continued with voluntary work. He approached me, his local member, and put his case to me. As a result, the bipartisan federal parliamentary support group for Parkinson’s disease was formed.

Amongst his considerable achievements for his cause, Rod became President of Parkinson’s NSW. He initiated a priorities seminar as well as the Access Economics study now used by the European Union and Canada. He initiated lobbying for regional neurological nurses for the eastern states as well as an important community service statement raising awareness of Parkinson’s. As a result of those efforts, Gilmore has its first dedicated nurse as part of a pilot program. He suggested the Governor-General be patron. He became the Vice-President of Parkinson’s Australia, lobbying hard with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on discrepancies in statistical data.

There is so much more he did and I cannot do his efforts justice in the limited time available to me. However, I would like to read out the sentiments of his former boss, the Hon. Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister in the Hawke and Keating governments and presently professorial fellow with the University of Melbourne. In a message to a family associate, this is part of what Professor Evans wrote:

Rod was a genuinely lovely bloke, and a very fine servant of his country, the South Pacific, and—simply—of humanity. I enjoyed enormously working with him: He knew everything about everything and everyone who mattered, from the most exalted to the most humble, and was an absolute fount of good advice, always conscious of the human implications of what we were doing—and always delightful company, not least in face of imminent air crashes.

I know that back home on my desk I have an unanswered letter regarding Parkinson’s and other things from Dympna/Rod quite a few months ago. Afraid I just kept deferring it as the urgent crowded out the important, and now I’m riddled with guilt. Please convey my apologies for that to Dympna, as well as my heartfelt regrets that I won’t be able to be there with you to celebrate a wonderful Australian life, wonderfully well lived. Rod will be terribly missed not just by his family, but by many, many others.

There is not much more I can add to those sentiments except to say that Rod Irwin’s passing is also our collective loss.

I thank Rod for teaching me about Parkinson’s and pledge that I will continue to advocate the cause on his behalf and that I will continue to reinforce to the government the need for continued support as the incidence of this disease continues to grow wider and into younger age groups. And I will work with the medical profession to heighten awareness of the disease within the profession. I know that Rod’s wife, Dympna, will never allow us to forget just how debilitating this disease can be. Stay strong, Dympna. I know just how much Rod meant to you. His life was made more bearable because he had you by his side. He was a much-loved man and respected by all in the community of the Southern Highlands and beyond. I was honoured to have known him and to have been classed as his friend.