Service SA

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on how key reforms are delivering better services at Service SA?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:47): I thank the member for Flinders for his question and note his very keen interest in how our government is innovating the way that we deliver services to improve service delivery for South Australians. Straight off the bat, I would like to point out that a lot of this innovation comes from deep within the vast resources and the well of good work that's done within our Public Service—none more so than in Service SA, an organisation that was left to rot under the former government and one that we are delivering a comprehensive reform package on.

A lot of this innovation is actually coming from the staff themselves, and I want to thank them for their hard work and especially the way that they have embraced this new concierge model that's being trialled and now being rolled out more generally at Service SA, which is a simple change, but strong innovation nonetheless that has delivered now a 30 per cent reduction in wait times for people lining up at Service SA.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Stop shouting!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There are some who don't like good news. There are some whose information may be out of date, but the world is moving quickly. This government, working strongly in conjunction with the staff at Service SA, has been able to improve the way that we deliver services by doing some pretty simple things—that is, when you come in, having the concierge there to be able to help deal with people as they walk in. If somebody wants a simple bit of information they can get it straightaway and walk straight out the door. That person does not need to line up.

For those people who feel comfortable using an assisted service kiosk or a self-serve kiosk, they are able to undertake that transaction much more quickly than they used to be able to do. For those people who either have to or want to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —undertake a face-to-face transaction, we have the service there available for them. We have seen a 30 per cent reduction, and that is phenomenal, in delivering better services, which is what we as a government promised to South Australians before the election.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We have also seen a strong trend around more people wanting to use online services. What we have done is to help provide the mechanism for people to be able to do that, to be able to, for instance, get an SMS or email notification about their motor rego. We have seen very strong take-up—some 10,000 people a month signing up to the online driver's licence. We now see 58 per cent of transactions being undertaken online. Again, for those people, they don't have to stand there and line up at a Service SA centre.

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Deputy leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: From the privacy of their own home, they are able to transact in the way that they want, the way that they choose, and we think that is a fantastic step forward.

The Hon. A. Piccolo: What about the ones who can't?

The SPEAKER: Member for Light!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: On 24 February, we are going to open our new Service SA centre at Currie Street. Again, there are those who don't like that announcement, even though the customers are the very ones who provided us with the feedback that the existing centre is in an out-of-the-way location, not friendly for people to get to and hence why people have chosen not to use that centre. We have moved it to a much more high-traffic location, right next to the tram, right next to where the majority of our bus services operate and right in the middle of the beating heart of our city, providing a modern new centre that is set up to deliver the services in a way that gets people in the door, seen or transacted, out the door and back on their way that much more quickly.

I also had the opportunity last week to go and visit Regency Park and have a look at the operations there. I want to say that I was so thoroughly impressed by the staff who work there, especially the manager, Col, who does a fantastic job with his team in sometimes pretty difficult circumstances dealing with some very difficult transactions.

Also, literally as we sit here speaking, I received a text message from somebody saying that they have just been in to the North Terrace centre and Zerina there provided them with phenomenal service, helping to register their car, their historic vehicle—again, another example of how people are embracing the reforms that we are undertaking and our push to provide better services for South Australians, which is precisely delivering on the commitments that we made to the people at the 2018 election.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: If the member for Playford wants to be a comedian, he can apply for next year's Fringe.