Service SA

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:25): Closure of at least three Service SA centres that we know about is causing great concern in our community. The Service SA centres at Modbury, Prospect and Mitcham have been marked as part of the government's budget, a budget of cuts, closures and privatisation. Wherever I go—shopping centres, the Dernancourt Uniting Church annual fair that I attended on the weekend, street corner meetings, school award ceremonies, sports presentation nights or visiting my 85-year-old father—the issue of the closure of Service SA centres is raised and, may I add, opposed.

Today, I had Torrens residents Ray, Helen, Kay, Ros, Beryl, Linda, Richard, Robert, Ian and Amy in for a tour of Parliament House, and it was raised as an issue of concern among them as well. It is even more worrying that the government is considering closing more Service SA centres across Adelaide, in addition to the three already marked for closure. During budget estimates, in response to the shadow minister's question, 'Can the minister guarantee that he will close no other Service SA centres?' the minister responded:

There is still a broader reform piece that needs to be undertaken. At this stage, there is still some more work we need to do, and I want to wait to see that final work and then I will be able to communicate what that looks like.

We now know that the government is closing three Service SA centres and that there are legitimate fears more centres could be closed. Most South Australians rely on Service SA centres to access essential services, such as change of address for vehicle registration or driver's licences, renewing a driver's licence, replacing a licence or renewing a learner's permit, applying for a learner's permit, applying for a South Australian licence, transferring an interstate licence, ordering motor vehicle special plates and replacing them or cancelling and transferring vehicle registration. There is also recreational boating licence registrations and, of course, the list goes on.

Closing Service SA centres will only make life harder for everyday South Australians, particularly for the more senior members of our community. We know that, currently, some of these licence-related processes can only be done in person, while others are able to be done online or by phone, but at the moment there is an option. However, there are many in our community, particularly those who are more senior, who have not been carried along with the digital revolution, who are not computer literate and many do not even own a computer.

For many, using a credit card or a savings card to make an online payment is not a consideration for them. The impact on these members of our community will be significant if the government continues to ignore the issues that they raise about the closure of the three centres and chooses to go ahead with them. I have been contacted by many residents and, along with them, I question the lack of planning that has gone into this decision, given that both the Prospect and Modbury centres are the third and fourth busiest centres in the state, and Mitcham is not far behind.

At the Prospect centre, the number of customers served in the 2017-18 year was 105,000; Modbury, 104,000; and Mitcham, 83,000. It is time and it is cost, whether it be fuel or the cost of public transport and car parking. For residents wanting to visit a Service SA centre following the closure of the Modbury centre and travelling to Regency Park, it is a 21-minute drive. It is 14 kilometres one way and it is 41 minutes on average on public transport. Prospect to Regency Park is eight minutes, five kilometres one way or 30 to 40 minutes on public transport. Those having to attend the Adelaide Service SA centre will also have the added cost of car parking if they drive.

We all know the waiting times at some Service SA centres are long enough already. Now, according to those I have spoken to, waiting times can be over an hour and even the member for Adelaide makes reference to 40 minutes and not the five minutes the minister referred to in a recent radio interview. With more than 192,000 customers served in the 2017-18 year at the three Service SA centres targeted for closure at this stage, there will be many who will not, for reasons already outlined, change to online payments.

Closures of the Modbury, Prospect and Mitcham centres will mean longer travel times, longer queues at the remaining centres and poorer services for everyday South Australians, as well as additional costs of fuel, public transport fares, car parking and time, which of course you cannot put a price on.