On top of the physical burden of living with constant pain, people with chronic pain also face significant financial and emotional burdens, and are particularly susceptible to mental health issues, like anxiety and depression.

We know that many people with chronic pain believe that the existing system is woefully inadequate when it comes to treating their pain, so we want to hear from your readers – what’s working, what isn’t working, and what do you think would be a better way to manage chronic pain in Australia? 

National Pain Week (24 – 30 July 2017) aims to de-stigmatise the experiences of people living with chronic pain, to reduce the isolation many feel, and to raise awareness within the wider community. 

As a community, we need to manage pain together and I strongly encourage your readers to share their stories, experiences and ideas on the www.nationalpainweek.org.au website, or on social media, using the hashtag #NPW2017.

On behalf of the one in five Australians living with chronic pain, thank you for your support.

Dr Coralie Wales President, Chronic Pain Australia

The article ‘Exceptional’ worth of rail link upgrade (Illawarra Mercury, Saturday July 15, 2017) should do more than just excite the attention of its readers.

It should cause them to make strong representations to the cabinet ministers of the NSW government demanding a “Please explain!”.

For it is obvious from the detail contained in the leaked cabinet-in confidence document entitled ‘Rail corridor Strategy Sydney to Wollongong’ this was something the premier and cabinet of the time and since, did not want exposed.

It quite clearly indicates with its failure to be supported by a cabinet, a cabinet which included among its number, Member for Bega Andrew Constance; both the economic welfare of the Illawarra and South Coast regions and the long suffering victims of the Third World rail service provided to those regions counted for absolutely nothing.

“Pork barrel” projects in marginal electorates and ensuring the LNP’s major sponsors can reap profits ie toll road construction and ownership, are the benchmark of this NSW administration.

What more obvious economic stimuli for NSW than the completion of the Maldon to Dombarton link and the realignment and expansion of the South Coast rail line?

Barry Swan 31 Hutchinson Drive Balgownie

It was Howard and Costello that turned us from a nation of savers into a nation of credit card junkies.

The result: Australian household debt, by economic standards, is the highest in the world and does not look like declining to a manageable level in the near future.

John Macleod, Berry

Governments of either hue have no problem in chasing the “little people” to recover overpayments.

Why, therefore, is the government even debating the quarantining of remuneration associated with former senators Waters and Ludlum?

Or, is it a case of turning a blind eye to one affluent sector, while enthusiastically hunting down down another that, by and large, doesn't have the means to defend itself?

That said, my finely calibrated ‘political antenna’ indicates that it must be a fair accompli the senators return to the tax payer monies neither had been entitled to receive during their tenure in the Upper House.

DJ Preece, Balgownie