Public Sector Agencies

Mr GEE (Napier) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for the Public Sector. How can South Australians find information about the performance of public sector agencies?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (14:37): I thank the member for his question. Our public sector has a vital role in providing important services to the community. As such, our public sector should be efficient and effective, but also transparent. One of the commitments in the state government's Building a Stronger South Australia policy was to develop an online location where people could have access to service performance information in one place. Today, I am pleased to announce that a new online initiative, SA Performs, is about to go online. This site has been developed by Service SA and will shortly be available on the sa.gov.au website.

While some information is currently available on agency websites, SA Performs will provide a single point of entry for customers wishing to have access to performance figures relating to currently available data and to a range of new performance statistics. Customers will be able to find easily information such as emergency department wait times, details around Adelaide's air quality, public transport performance, road crash and safety reports, and also government invoice payment performance. As Minister for the Public Sector, I am also pleased to announce that SA Performs will provide data on Service SA customer satisfaction and wait times, information that is being released proactively for the first time.

As members would be aware, Service SA provides the community with access to government information and transactions through its integrated network of online telephone and face-to-face channels. Service SA business channels complete 10 million transactions and collect $1.6 billion annually. I am pleased to report that a recent survey of over 4,400 customers showed that 98 per cent of customers contacting Service SA by telephone were satisfied with the service they received and 67 per cent with the time it took to get through; 94 per cent of customers attending a customer service centre were satisfied with the service they received and 80 per cent with the time it took to receive the service.

Service SA continually works to improve customer experience and in light of these results is focusing on timeliness. I congratulate Service SA staff for delivering high levels of service in what is a complex and high volume service delivery environment. While members will know that some of Service SA's 10 million annual transactions do involve some difficulties for people, these represent a very small percentage of the total, and Service SA is continually working towards improved customer experience. I welcome members of this house inquiring about Service SA matters on behalf of their constituents, and assure the house that this feedback helps to inform service provision improvements.

I look forward to keeping members updated on further important initiatives being implemented by Service SA as it continually looks to improve services to the community. I encourage members to visit the site later today to see just how well SA Performs operates as part of that service.

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen was right and I am wrong. We all hope that the Deputy Premier was moving with centripetal force towards the substance of the question.