Service SA

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Does the minister stand by his remarks on ABC radio on 6 September that the average waiting time at the Service SA centre he is closing is 'somewhere between about five to eight minutes'. With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: In a letter dated 20 September 2018 to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, from the Minister for Child Protection, she wrote:

The waiting time personally experienced and reported by residents is around 20-25 minutes and can be up to 40 minutes and not the 5-minutes you referred to in a recent radio interview.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members on my left will be quiet!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:18): I wonder whether members of the opposition have been to year 8 mathematics class, where you learn the difference between averages and individual instances. The way—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings. The member for Badcoe is on two warnings. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The answer is that, yes, there are times when people have to wait for unacceptably long periods at Service SA centres. Yes, that's right. The average is a figure that I have that we measure, and each of the Service SA centres measure, right across the length and breadth of the centres, but there are times when people write and say that they have had to wait for longer periods of time. That is true, but this is not a problem that existed after 17 March 2018. This is a problem that has been around in Service SA centres for a long time. It is why we actually need to have reform—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth! Member for Ramsay!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —in this space. It's why one of the solutions that we are actually looking at is trying to find ways to make it so that people don't have to go to Service SA centres in the first place.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order. Minister, please be seated. The member for West Torrens.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is warned.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: This will be bogus, sir.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Energy is called to order. I will hear the point of order.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: Now he's got to think of a real one.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Energy is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: relevance. The question was very specific.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. The question that was asked had a fair bit in it and I think the minister is attempting to answer most of that question, but I do ask that he, in his future answer, please keep to the substance of that question. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The question was about wait times in Service SA centres—

The SPEAKER: Yes, yes. Just get on with the answer please, minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and everything I have discussed so far is about waits in Service SA centres. It is not a point of order just because you don't like the answer.

The SPEAKER: That is true.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: That is not the way it works.

The SPEAKER: That is true. Get on with it.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: But there are a number of measures that this government is currently looking at to encourage people to, instead of getting in their car and driving to a Service SA centre—

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Light!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —maybe drive to their local post office, which is likely to be closer to where they live than a Service SA centre, to help them to be able to transition to online, which they can do from the privacy of their own home, and again make it cheaper not only for them—

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Ramsay!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —but also for government, so that we can actually spend money on other things, other great and worthy projects, but also so that we take a fundamental look at why it is that people have to go to Service SA centres in the first place.

Mr Cregan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kavel!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Being able to change the regulations, by being able to take a different approach to the way that we provide these transactional services, can actually save everybody time. I know that most people would much prefer to be sitting at home watching the latest rerun of Modern Family than having to stand and line up at a Service SA centre. That's why we are taking this reform process on.

Yes, there is a savings task that is attached to that. Once again, $11½ million out of the $16 million over the next four years is a savings task that somebody else—maybe the member for West Torrens, in the MYBR, which he handed down in December last year—put onto this unit within government. We don't shy away from the savings task. In fact, we know that reform in this space is going to help our budget bottom line, which is going to free up funds for us to be able to spend money on things such as every single one of the election commitments we made at the last election.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister is finished. Member for Waite.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition will not interject.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe can leave the chamber for 20 minutes under 137A.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The honourable member for Badcoe having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!