(1)   When will the Commonwealth State Disability Agreement (CSDA) be reviewed.

(2)   Which of the recommendations made by the 1995 review of the CSDA have been implemented and which have not, and if not, why not.

(3)   What is the status of negotiations with each of the state and territory governments on the additional respite for carers over 70 years of age.

(1)   The Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement extends until 30 June 2007.  There are no plans to formally review the Agreement during that period.

(2)   The 1995 review of the first Commonwealth State Disability Agreement contained 50 recommendations.  These were all taken into account and considered by the Australian and State and Territory jurisdictions in renegotiating and implementing the third Agreement, which commenced in July 2002.

(3)   The Australian Government initiative, announced in the 2004-05 Budget, to provide access to respite for older carers was conditional on matching funding from state and territory governments.  Currently agreement has been reached with two jurisdictions.  Agreement has been reached at officials’ level with three other jurisdictions. To date, two jurisdictions have not accepted the Australian Government’s offer of matched funding.